Tangle of Red
by Resonae
Summary: Tony's life is perfect: he's rich, a genius, has four best friends, and in complete control of everything. That is, until two almost-incestual twins turn his life into an unpredictable chaos. MI4:GP characters appear, AU, slash, Tony/Clint, Ethan/Will
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I don't own the Avengers or Mission Impossible characters. Jeremy Renner is my ultimate bias currently, so I thought, well, why not bring them together and make them twins who can't live with each other? Categorized under Avengers because it's AU either way, and the fic is going to be in Tony's 3rd person limited narrative, anyway.

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Tangle of Red: Chapter 1

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To be completely honest, Tony enjoyed public school. There was a reason why he had practically begged his parents to let him attend a public school instead of a private boarding school like they were planning. Public school was so much more _interesting_, full of actual people with actual personalities. There were no stuck-up rich bastards (even if being richer than Tony was rare) and the occasional geniuses here were genuine.

He looked around at his tried-and-true group of friends. There was Steve, who was strangely old-fashioned. Tall, good-looking, moderately smart, who flocked all the girls to him. There was Thor (what kind of mother did _he_ have, naming her son after a Norse god?) who talked a little weirdly and was basketball-player-status-tall, with shoulder-length blonde hair that made girls swoon. There was Natasha, the only female in their group, redheaded and busty and gorgeous in every way, except that she was probably the strongest out of them and could drop-kick any guy who tried to grope her before he could even move a finger her way. There was Bruce, one of the occasional genuine geniuses. He always looked tired and hassled, but Tony had to grudgingly admit the possibility that Bruce _might_ be a little smarter than he was. Just a little. And maybe just at physics and math.

And then there was him, the genius billionaire-to-be that flocked girls everywhere. Their little posse was the most desired clique in the entire high school, except they didn't exactly take new members. Tony grinned proudly at his group of friends.

Yup, he loved them. To pieces.

"Tony, the way you're grinning at us is _beyond_ creepy." Natasha muttered, rolling her eyes over the apple she had filched from Steve's lunch. Steve was eating from Thor's bag of chips, Bruce was munching at Natasha's salad, and Thor was digging through Tony's pasta. Tony himself was gulfing down Bruce's sandwich. Because Bruce's mom made the best fucking chicken wraps. He'd even brought Bruce's sandwiches to their mansion cook, but none of them could replicate it. It was some kind of magic Bruce's mother worked.

Bruce's mother had been incredibly amused when she found out Tony was obsessed with her sandwiches and started packing two in the morning, so now Tony had two sandwiches to have a mouth orgasm over. Who cared if Steve or Thor or Natasha wanted to have a bite, too.

It was normal lunch, where they all sort of spread their lunches out on their table and ate whatever they wanted. "Natasha, I saw you walking in with two boys, about our age, today." Thor declared once he'd swallowed a mouthful of pasta.

Natasha nodded. "You saw that? You were daydreaming through History again today, huh?"

Thor laughed loudly, as he always did. "I always do so. I happened to notice these two boys looked identical."

"Yeah. Clint and Will, they're identical twins." Natasha shrugged and reached her fork into Tony's pasta that Thor was hogging. "They were getting their paperwork in today. They'll be coming here starting tomorrow. Tony, Bruce." She lifted a spaghetti-rolled fork and pointed it at Tony and Bruce. It was intimidating because Natasha was pointing it at them, and they both flinched. "Will should be in all your classes. Take care of him, all right?"

"Clint and Will? As in the two you always talk about?" Steve wondered, taking half of Bruce's sandwich before Tony could stop him. "I thought they lived in another state."

"They do. Did. Now they live across the street from me. Their guardian decided to move closer to my family because he's gonna get really busy soon, and he wanted us to keep an eye on the two." Natasha shrugged. Tony remembered that every time Natasha talked about the two twins, she talked about them as if they needed to be protected. "Whatever. Just take care of Will. He's a little quiet before you get to know him. Steve, Thor, you'll meet Clint tomorrow. Clint is normal, like the rest of us, and doesn't need to take all the advanced senior classes." She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "BY the way, Tony, Will _has_ a boyfriend, and I don't want to see you try to get into Clint's pants, either. Because they're pretty attractive."

Steve groaned. "Great. At least they can't get pregnant, like that girl before."

"Hey, it turned out that it wasn't even my kid!"

Bruce rolled his eyes. "I think the problem is that you're 16 and sleeping with all the girls around you anyway." He finished the last of Natasha's salad. "Natasha, I forgot to leave you the tomatoes."

Natasha waved her hand. "Whatever, Bruce. I forgot to leave you a meatball from Tony's pasta, too."

Yup, normal lunch. But he couldn't wait to see the twins. Natasha _never_ said anyone was attractive. Hell, she used to tell them Tony and Steve were gorillas and that Thor's hair was nothing. If she was saying someone was attractive, they probably looked like fucking gods.

The day after, Tony was parking with Thor snoring next to him, Bruce teaching Steve some last-minute chemistry for his test first period, when he saw Natasha in his usual spot, grinning at him with her hands placed on her hips. She had told him the day before that she didn't need picking up, and he saw why. A sleek Audi was parked in the place right next to his. One boy was sitting on its hood and the other was talking to the driver. When they turned to face him he could see they were exactly alike.

And as Natasha said, _fucking _attractive. It wasn't that they were extremely good looking like he or Thor or Steve. In fact, they looked pretty average, but _something _about them, the way their carried themselves, attracted Tony. They weren't tall, either, only slightly taller than Natasha and therefore probably an inch or so shorter than Bruce, and they weren't overly muscular, but both were well-built and looked strong. The one sitting on the hood – and even Tony wouldn't sit on the hood of an Audi – smirked confidently at him, and he was just that much more attractive.

"That's it." Steve muttered. "Tony, you're definitely going to fuck one of them, aren't you? At least make it the one that doesn't have a boyfriend."

"God, are they attractive to you, too? Cause I have no idea why. Wait, you're straight!"

Bruce chuckled lowly. "Get your act together, Tony. Don't want to come out all blabbering and flustered for a first impression. Steve, here, this is important, too…"

"I'm never blabbering and flustered." Tony shot quickly, but Steve and Bruce ignored him in favor of 10th-grade-chemistry. For good measure he ran a hand through his hair before he stepped out. Steve shook Thor awake and they stayed a little longer in the car. "Natasha." He greeted, and Natasha grinned at him. "Are you gonna introduce us?"

Natasha jerked her head at Tony. "This is Tony Stark."

"The filthy rich bastard?" The one on the hood quipped, and the one that had been talking to the driver laughed quietly. The laugh traveled straight to Tony's brain and made it a little mushy. "That was a direct quote from Tasha."

Tony looked at Natasha, who shrugged. "It's true. The one with the long hair is Thor Odinson. Steve Rogers is the one right behind him, and Bruce Banner is the one with the brown hair." She pointed each one out. "This is Clint. Clint Barton. That's Will Brandt."

Steve blinked. "Wait, I thought you two were twins. How do you two have different last names?"

Clint shrugged. "Actually, the full name is Clinton Barton-Brandt and William Barton-Brandt. But something got fucked up in our paperwork back at the orphanage and we became Clint Barton and Will Brandt. Doesn't change anything, though." He pointed to the driver. "This is Ethan Hunt. He's Will's boyfriend."

The dark-brown haired and quite good looking man laughed. "I'm your guardian, you retard. Now get off my hood before I drive with you still on it." He squeezed Will's hand – it was quick, but Tony caught it – before he rolled the windows up, calling, "I'll pick the three of you up after school. I might run a bit late, but don't go home without me."

And then he was pulling out with Clint still on the hood, so Clint had to jump off. Will came to stand next to Clint, and that hit Tony more than anything how identical they were. Except Clint was slightly taller, slightly broader, and he carried himself with a confident air, while Will was slightly shorter, slightly smaller, and looked shy and unsure. It didn't take a genius to figure out who the dominant twin was. Will's hand brushed over Clint's elbow and Clint caught it, squeezing firmly and keeping their hands together. "Wow, you two look identical." Thor breathed.

Clint laughed. "Yeah, we get that often. We _are_ identical twins, though, you know?"

"Who's older?" Bruce wanted to know.

"Older? As in born first? Will was born a few minutes earlier, but they do say that the one born after was the one made first, you know?" Clint was all laughter and confidence. And fuck, it was attractive the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled. And their eyes were something _else_. It was a mix of green and gray and blue and never stayed the same color. What the hell, Tony thought desperately. No human being is supposed to have this affect on me.

He watched – they all did, sort of mesmerized – as Clint tugged on Will's wrist to bring him closer and brush his fingers lightly on his waist and then arm. Steve was the one who broke out of it first and offered to tour the two around school before it actually started, and they walked a little ahead. "Are they always this affectionate toward each other?" Bruce wondered softly.

Natasha snorted. "What, the touching? You haven't seen anything." She started walking, so they followed. "They've been through a lot where they only had each other. They're pretty dependent on each other. The only reason Clint hasn't kissed Will yet is because everyone else is around. If it was just me he would've kissed Will already. Will doesn't like new people. It makes him nervous." Her tone made it sound like there was a back story to it, one that they wouldn't get even if they asked.

"That's a little weird." Tony said instead.

"Yeah, but you get used to it." Natasha shrugged. "It sort of becomes an everyday thing."

Steve could only give an outlined tour, but Natasha had shoved Will's schedule in Bruce's hands with the demand, "You two take care of him." Clint had looked reluctant to leave Will, and Tony saw Clint squeeze Will's wrist before letting go, handing him a notebook and a pen from his bag, and leaving with Natasha, Steve and Thor. "We'll see you at gym class before lunch."

"Well," Bruce spoke up when Will turned his attention to them, looking nervous. "The good news is that your schedule's identical to Tony's and mine, so you can just stick with us for the entire day. The bad news is that you're not going to survive with a notebook and a pen." He looked pointedly at Tony's own bookbag, full of six different notebooks for each class.

Will smiled shyly. It was completely different from Clint's confident smirk, but Tony found his insides melting. Okay. He had no idea which twin he liked better. "I'll be okay." He hugged his notebook. "I'll see how it is today and then decide what I need starting tomorrow."

"Fair enough." Bruce nodded, and they started walking toward their first class. "Natasha talked to us often about the two of you."

Will nodded, blushing faintly. "She told us a lot about you guys, too. She has a high opinion of all of you. It doesn't happen often."

Tony couldn't help but laugh, and Bruce chuckled. "How long have you guys known Natasha?"

Will looked thoughtful for a second. "Hmm. Since we were six. Tasha's family was close to Ethan's family when Clint and I got adopted." He sat down to Tony's left and Bruce took Tony's right. Tony noted that Will and Clint called Natasha 'Tasha.' He would've liked to try it, but it might have meant a fork thrown at him. He settled for watching Will as Bruce opened his textbook and started to read over the notes from the day before. Will didn't even bother opening his notebook as the lecture started. Instead he got an intense, focused look on his face. He glanced over to smile shyly at Tony every time Tony made a mumbled joke under his breath and even Bruce laughed quietly, but otherwise he sat quite still, staring at the board.

It happened the same way in the next few classes. The only time Will's notebook flipped open was during Multivariable Calculus when they were asked to solve a problem. And Tony noticed that the problem itself was done within the first ten seconds, and then Will would stare into space until the lecture continued. "Are you some certified genius?" Tony asked when they were done with class and Bruce paused to talk to the teacher. "I mean, that's coming from me. And I'm an actually certified genius."

Will flushed a bright red that colored the tips of his ears. "N-no. I just have good memory." He smiled uncertainly. "If I was a genius, I wouldn't need to focus so much, like you or Bruce. It seems to just easily come to you." They waited for Bruce to finish talking to the teacher, and then headed out. "We have gym class now, ri-"

He was cut off mid sentence and whirled away. Purely on instinct, Tony reached out to grab a wrist, but stopped when he saw that it was Clint, with Natasha, Steve, and Thor in tow. Clint was frowning lightly. "You didn't feel me?" Will looked alarmed for some reason and shook his head. Clint reached out and slid a hand under short dirty blonde bangs. "Maybe you shouldn't have taken so advanced classes."

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "I think he'll do fine in all the classes, if you're implying that's stressful for him."

Clint glanced his way and grinned. "No, I don't mean that. Of course Will's going to ace all his classes. He's a genius, don't you know? I just meant he'd be stressed out without me. He's not good with new people."

Will mumbled, "Don't talk about me like I'm not here." He was glaring at his twin, but didn't make an effort to push him away and instead waited until Clint lowered his hand to cup his cheek gently and then finally to take a hold of Will's wrist again. "I was just nervous, I guess. Your class is far away, isn't it?"

Clint laughed as he pulled Will along, and the rest of the group moved with them. "Yeah. You should totally see Tasha. She was just all, 'I think we've learned enough today.' And the teacher got all spluttery and let us out five minutes early." The twins soon fell into their own world, with Clint doing most of the talking and Will smiling softly and nodding along.

Natasha moved up next to Tony. "That was nice reflexes when you reached out for Will." She grinned. "You really took my 'Take care of Will' to heart, didn't you?"

Tony shrugged. "It was just instinct. What did they mean, before? When Will didn't feel Clint?"

Natasha gave him an equally indifferent shrug. "They're twins. Haven't you heard that twins have like telepathy or something? They sorta just can feel each other. It's kinda cool seeing it work. Like if you have one somewhere and set the other out, they'll find each other." She frowned lightly. "It's weird Will didn't feel Clint right next to him, though."

Tony raised an eyebrow. He'd heard _theories_ of the twin-telepathy thing, but most of it was just some fantasy created by writers. He'd never actually seen it at work, and until he did he really couldn't believe it quite yet.

Clint did the talking to the gym teachers – no they didn't mind sharing a gym locker - and Tony noticed that Will's gym clothes came from Clint's bag as well. They changed quickly and Will laughed at Clint as he tried too hastily to stuff his bag into the narrow locker, and something black fell out. Clint swiped it up before Tony could actually see what it was, but he could have sworn it was a handgun. "Hey, was that a…" Clint turned to look at him, questioning. "Was that a gun?"

Clint burst out laughing, straightening his black shorts and shirt. "A gun? Seriously?" He reached back into his bag and tugged out his black leather pencil case. "I guess it could sorta look like a gun." Tony raised an eyebrow. Weird. He was pretty sure he'd seen a gun. He shrugged it off and led Clint and Will to the gymnasium, ignoring the way Will tugged on Clint's elbow and Clint gripped Will's wrist, brushing something invisible off the white shirt and blue shorts.

"Basketball." Natasha greeted them as they entered. Clint groaned. "And I may or may not have had anything to do with the teacher assigning the two of you to play with the basketball team's captain and their ace player."

Will looked pained. "Tasha, the point was for us to _blend in_. You know. Not attract attention."

Natasha shrugged. "So? The point is for me to get some eye candy. And for you to build some stamina, as always." Stamina? Tony'd have to ask Natasha about that later. Neither Will nor Clint looked like they needed any more stamina work. "Now off you go, he's calling you." She had a smug look on her face as Steve, Thor, Bruce and Tony sat down next to her. "I'm giving you guys a treat. Especially you, Tony." She jabbed at his knee.

"I thought I was supposed to stay out of their pants."

"You are. Doesn't mean I can't show my boys off."

Thor crossed his arms across his chest. "They are too short. Even Steve and I cannot beat the captain of the basketball team by ourselves. Even with Tony and you we cannot beat them." Tony nodded. Unlike Bruce, he liked sports, so he and the other three guys of their little group spent a lot of time on the courts. And Clint and Will didn't really look like much basketball players. They just looked like two guys who worked out just enough to keep themselves fit, but not overly athletic.

"Prepare to be surprised out of your mind, Thor." Natasha said pleasantly. The whistle blew, and Clint moved first, too fast for either basketball player. Will hung back quietly until Clint quite literally dove at him. And then in another moment the ball was in Will's hands and he was dribbling around the two opposing players, weaving his way in and out. He passed to Clint without even checking where he was. Clint snatched it out of mid-air, jumped, and the shot was cleanly in.

They moved again just as swiftly as they had before once the ball was back in play. Will looked like he had all but brushed by the captain of the basketball team, but suddenly the ball was back in his hands. The ball was passed to Clint, and then back to Will again for Will to swerve, duck under an arm, jump and make the same clean shot his twin had a few moments ago.

"They're playing with them." Steve muttered, sounding a little miffed. "They're _good_."

Steve was right. Now that the twins had scored a goal each, they made it a mission to weave the ball in and out, brushing just out of reach and passing gracefully to one another. The comment Natasha had made about twin telepathy came back to him when Will passed, again, without even bothering to look. After about ten minutes, Tony had differentiated their movements enough so he could sort of make a guess without looking at their clothes colors.

Both moved incredibly similarly, of course, but Clint was more about a raw power sort of grace, like a tiger running after prey or a shark slicing through the water. Will, on the other hand, was a quiet sort of grace, like a panther weaving through thick jungles or a dolphin maneuvering itself in water. Both were masters at what they did.

The whistle rang after five more minutes, and Clint and Will were suddenly crowded with awed boys and blushing girls. It was Thor, not the teacher, who managed to pry the others off Clint and Will to bring them to the sidelines as the teacher called a late attendance. "You guys are very good." Thor gushed as he sat next to Clint. Tony was about to take the seat next to Will, but Natasha slipped into place, looking slightly worried. He did look a little winded.

Clint snickered. "Nah, just Ethan. _He's_ the one that's good. The two of us together can't beat him." He pulled himself closer to Will and slung his arm firmly across Will's waist, huddling even closer. Will leaned over to rest his head on Clint's shoulder, closing his eyes and breathing slowly. It was something Tony had only seen couples do, but for some reason it wasn't weird to see the two brothers being so affectionate.

The rest of the day passed quietly without much ado, with Will still not taking any notes. Tony and Bruce walked with Will to the parking lot, where the others were already waiting for him. Clint ran up to tug on Will's wrist and they sat on the curb, smiling to themselves. All of a sudden Clint looked up and around, and then quickly planted a kiss on Will's cheek.

Will didn't even look surprised. In fact, his smile widened and he leaned into his twin, letting Clint throw an arm around his shoulders. Natasha was the one who stood in front of them, her foot tapping impatiently. "You couldn't wait like ten minutes for Ethan to come? I thought Ethan told you guys to knock off some of the affection display in public. It attracts attention."

Clint rolled his eyes. "Relax, Tasha. No one saw. And he's late, anyway."

Bruce sat on the curb next to Will. "We can wait with you guys. We're not in a hurry, anyway. Plus, I actually wanted to ask Will about this…" He pulled out his notes and glanced apologetically at Will. "I asked Tony earlier, and we sort of both missed this part."

Will looked over and chuckled lightly, letting Clint's arm slide down to his waist as he leaned over. "This was when Tony made the joke about the blonde in front of us, right?" He hummed lightly. "Right, so here…" He held out his hand and Clint fished a pen from his pocket to hand to his brother. Tony looked over and watched Will make little circles and notes and arrows as he explained the question to Bruce.

He was almost done when they heard a car pull in, and Tony looked up to find the same silver Audi as this morning. The window rolled down and Ethan chuckled when he saw the sight. "First day and already helping others, Will?"

Will smiled brilliantly at Ethan. Okay, Tony thought, I have no chance with Will. "Give me one second." He whispered, and ducked his head back to explain the question to Bruce and Tony again. To Tony's surprise, it was Natasha who slid in the front passenger seat. But that was explained later when Clint got up with Will and the two slid into the back seat, Clint gripping Will firmly by the waist again.

"Ah, Tony, right?" Ethan pulled his sunglasses up to his head and smiled at Tony. "Natasha told me you usually pick her up in the morning. Do you think Clint and Will would fit into your car tomorrow and the day after? It won't be an everyday thing, I promise, and we live right across the street from Tasha. I've just got to get to D.C. tomorrow early morning and won't be back until late night the day after."

It was Will who spoke up first. "Earth to Ethan, the day after is Saturday. We don't have school. And Clint and I can walk, it's not _that_ far. We'll just get up early."

Clint snorted from somewhere in the back seat. "Yeah, right. Because Will getting up early is something that actually happens." Tony watched Clint nuzzle Will's cheek affectionately. "We're lucky to get you up right before we have to actually drive out. Maybe we should just skip school tomorrow."

Tony spoke up before he had even thought about it. "Yeah, I can drive them. I'll bring out the SUV tomorrow. It fits eight people. Steve and Thor won't mind squishing into the trunk seats." This brought a protest from the two, and Clint laughed. "I don't mind."

Ethan grinned and saluted Tony. "Thanks, kid." And with that they were gone.

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That was longer than I really meant it to be, but I didn't really want to cut it off in the middle of Clint and Will's first day because it wasn't too eventful. Plus, imagining two Jeremy Renners being all touchy with each other makes me giddy. Heeeehe. Review? :3


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I don't own the Avengers or Mission Impossible characters. Jeremy Renner is my ultimate bias currently, so I thought, well, why not bring them together and make them twins who can't live with each other? Categorized under Avengers because it's AU either way, and the fic is going to be in Tony's 3rd person limited narrative, anyway.

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Tangle of Red: Chapter 2

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To say the twins weren't on Tony's mind the entire night would have been a blatant lie. It wasn't until he'd dropped everyone off and pulled into his garage that he'd realized he hadn't even gotten their number or IM username. He considered asking Natasha for it, but figured he'd be downright rejected, so settled instead for googling their name. "Huh." He muttered, tapping his chin. "Weird."

He tried every possible combination of Clint, Clinton, Brandt, and Barton, with and without dashes, and every Google search came up with a blank page. Which was bizarre, because the word _Clinton_ itself should have brought up some presidential stuff. But _nothing_.

He typed into his computer again, now trying William, Will, Bill (at this point he realized haha, their names made up William Clinton, the president), Brandt, and Barton, again, but he received the same results. "Okay." He stood up, picking up his phone to dial Natasha. "There is something not normal about these twins." He said to her as an opening greeting.

She laughed quietly at her end. [Not normal? You mean how they pretty much are all over each other even though they're brothers?]

"Well, yeah, there's that, but it's sort of watching some really fascinating porn, so I'll leave it off at that."

[Or the fact that they're incredibly good at basketball even though they're a lot shorter than all of you?]

"Okay, another thing. But again, like you said, that was really good eye candy for me, too, so I'll leave that alone too."

[How about the fact that their guardian is a twenty-year-old and that Will is actually dating him?]

"Tasha."

[Tony, don't pick up habits from Clint and Will. Be satisfied I let you call me Natasha instead of Romanoff.] She sounded amused, not angry, even if her words carried daggers.

"I figured I'd try it when you couldn't throw sharp objects at me. Anyway, you get my point. The twins are just weird. And I know you're hiding something from me." He was answered by a soft, amused hum. "Fine, stay quiet. I'll figure it out sooner or later, you know."

[You know, Tony? I have no doubt that you will. I already told Ethan that you would, and he said that if I trust you, then he trusts you. And I do. So it's okay if you find out in the end. It's okay if Steve and Thor and Bruce find out. But here's the thing, Tony. It's not okay if anyone else finds out. I'm going to make a wild guess and say you tried Googling Clint and Will, right?]

Tony blinked at his laptop screen. Did she have him wired or something? "How'd you know?"

[Tony, you googled _me_ when you first met me. And everyone else. Google is like your bible or something. And let me tell you what you found out. Their names lead to blank, empty search results. Something that isn't really possible for Google.] She still sounded highly amused. [Don't try to get it out of me, Tony, because you won't. You'll figure it out sooner or later. I mean, Will _is _in all your classes.]

Tony grumbled under his breath. "Fine. Can I at least get one of their numbers?"

Natasha laughed smugly in his ear. [I'll give you Will's, so you can at least have some sort of excuse when you text him.]

He hung up after he made her promise to text the number to him. True to her word, 10 digits sat in his screen and he thumbed the keypad as he texted rapidly. [Hey, Will, it's Tony. I got your number from Natasha. I sorta needed help with the thing this afternoon.] He chewed on his nail – it was a habit Thor was appalled at and something he could never fix – for about thirty seconds before his phone vibrated.

[Same thing with Bruce, right?] Tony could almost hear the gentle laughter in the letters as he read. [You should've paid attention instead of trying to pick a fight with Tasha. I can call you and explain it to you.]

Before Tony knew it, he'd pressed call. Will picked up and Tony heard the gentle laughter he had imagined a few seconds ago. "Sorry I called so late." He tried to sound like the usual cocky Tony Stark. He pulled it off pretty well, despite the fact that he was apologizing.

[Oh, it's not a problem. Clint and I were just doing homework, anyway. Well, I was doing homework. Clint is rolling – It's Tony. Tony, sorry, hold on.] Tony heard a mumbled conversation and then heard a whoosh and a sort of a thud. He heard some amused yelling before a whoosh sounded again. [Sorry.] Will sounded a little out of breath, like he had been just laughing. [Clint decided to be an idiot. Okay, do you have your notes?]

"Yeah." Tony didn't, but he vaguely remembered the part Bruce had asked Will earlier. He fished his notes up as he started to talk, and opened to the blank part in his notes just as he finished talking so he didn't sound like an idiot.

Will started to supply him with details and Tony wrote furiously, only half-paying attention to the actual work and focusing more on the soothing voice, the kind amusement and gentle admonition when Will reminded him that class was for paying attention. _If you didn't already have a boyfriend, I'd totally go for you,_ Tony thought as he mindlessly scribbled.

Will laughed on the other end of the line. [I'm glad you're respecting Ethan.] Tony blinked. What? [Also, I'm going to assume you didn't mean to say that out loud and pretend I heard nothing for both of our conveniences.]

"Fuck." He muttered, and Will laughed gently again. And Tony really, really was starting to love the way he sounded when he laughed. "I'm usually not this idiotic." He muttered, finishing off the last of the equation Will dictated and staring at it, as if it was to blame for his lack of composure. _I'm the great Tony Stark. This doesn't happen to me. Or shouldn't._

He could practically see Will's smile when he talked. [Don't worry about it. Tasha has a very good judge of character.]

Tony grinned. "Maybe you should get to know the rest of us and form your own judgment on all of us."

[Yes, Clint and I would like to.] Will said, honesty pouring from his tone. Tony wondered if he was always this readable, and then realized Clint probably took care of any of the problems that might have brought. [Oh, Tony, I've got to go. Did you need anything else?]

"No, that's fine. No, wait. When should I pick you up tomorrow?"

This time, Will sounded sheepish when he spoke. [Well.. Clint was right when he said I can't get up in the morning, so… But whenever is fine, really! Clint will just drag me out of bed.]

Tony tried to imagine morning with the twins, with the more studious one struggling to stay in bed and the more relaxed on trying to wake him up. "Must be a fun morning," he said, unable to keep himself from grinning broadly. "I'll pick you two and Tasha up last. How does 7:50 sound? We should be able to just barely make it on time."

Will chuckled sheepishly. [Sounds good. If you really are okay with the rushing.]

"Totally fine. Uh… I'm guessing that's Clint yelling in your background and you have to really go."

Will laughed loudly this time, tickling Tony all the way down to his toes. [He and Ethan are just hungry. Thank you for tomorrow.]

Tony looked at his phone for a long time after Will hung up, a silly grin spreading on his lips. He wondered what kind of family the two might have, and wondered if Ethan had saved a country or two in his previous life to have the privilege of living by himself with the twins. It seemed like a huge contrast to his own life. Sure, he had parents who were pretty loving and supportive – even if his father could get a little strict sometimes, but they were _never_ home. Tony got to see them at most a week every year because they were always busy abroad. He had a mansion full of servants who waited on his beck and call, and then he had Jarvis and Happy, who were, yeah, older than him, but still close friends of his. And then he had his friends to fill up the rooms of the houses anyway all the time.

And then there were the twins, who had been in the orphanage for who knew how long, and then adopted by Ethan's family at six, with some kind of secret reason behind them that required even the Google database to be cleared about them. But they had each other, and that was apparently all they needed. Ethan's Audi told Tony that even if Ethan wasn't as rich as say, Tony, he was in no way poor. In fact, Tony distinctly remembered looking at the numbers on Natasha's neighborhood when they had first been acquainted and found out that the houses on the block she lived in were _quite_ expensive. But they hadn't even seemed to care about the money. Sure, Will dressed like he was going to be in a photoshoot, and even Clint's easygoing jeans and t-shirt had brand names splattered on them, but they acted like nothing mattered in the world except each other. They'd made a little room for Ethan and Natasha in their lives, and now Bruce, Thor, Steve and himself were trying to budge in and they seemed willing enough to open their doors a little wider for them to fit through, but Tony knew from just what he'd seen today that they could easily push everyone else out and be satisfied in their own world.

He sat back in his chair and stared at the blank Google page, feeling a little smile spread on his lips. Well, he always had liked challenges.

The next morning he got up at 7, showered, dressed as he usually did because he realized neither Clint nor Will were the type to be impressed by looks alone, and called Steve. "I'm gonna pick you up in five minutes."

[You were supposed to pick me up five minutes ago, you prick.] Steve answered back, snorting. [I figured you were running late because you were picking up Clint and Will and Natasha.]

"Uh, you're actually the first person I'm picking up." He replied lightly, starting his SUV and switching to speaker. "Don't call me a prick, you dick. I act as a personal chauffeur for your asses so you don't have to take the bus." Steve laughed in response. "I'll see you in a minute. Can you call Bruce for me, tell him to get ready?"

[Sure. See you soon.]

He forced Steve and Thor to take the two trunk seats. Thor had folded himself to be comfortable – for an almost-giant, Thor had uncanny ways of folding himself into cramped spots – and was snoring, but Steve was grumbling the entire time. Bruce got the shotgun seat, because, well, Tony had figured Clint and Will would rather share the middle row seats with Natasha, not with someone they barely knew. "Hey, Natasha?" Tony flipped his phone to speaker. "You guys about ready? I'm turning into your street. Can I get Clint and Will's exact address?"

[248. It's literally right across the street from my house.] She sounded highly amused. [But we might have a slight problem.]

"Your tone suggests it's not a bad thing. Or am I reading you wrong and should I be worried?"

[I think you should be worried about being late to school. Will sort of fell asleep on his breakfast.]

This caused Steve to stop grumbling. "Wait, literally?" A quick look through the mirror told Steve was amused and unbelieving at the same time.

[Yeah, Clint is in the bathroom with him trying to wash the eggs out of his hair.] Natasha was giggling now. [Is that you pulling into the driveway?]

Tony pulled up into the spot that he guessed was normally for the silver Audi. "Yeah. Who else would it be?" Natasha snorted in response. "Will has two minutes until we should actually be worried about being late." He heard the garage door open and Natasha stood at entrance. A black Rolls Royce was parked inside it. "The dude has two cars?"

Natasha tapped on Tony's window. He rolled it down. "Yeah, this is Ethan's, too. He never takes the Rolls Royce out unless Clint bugs him about it, though." She leaned on his window and handed him a large container. "It's lunch." She explained shortly. "Don't lose it. Will spent the entire last night making it. It's for all of us."

Bruce leaned over, and, out of curiosity, Tony opened the container to be greeted with a container full of wraps, pasta, salad, and even seven hamburgers, individually wrapped carefully, on the side. "Holy." Bruce's eyes widened. "He didn't have to do this for us."

Seriously, Tony agreed silently, fishing out a strand of pasta. Natasha hit his wrist but he managed to eat it. "Damn." He blinked at Natasha, who glared. He obediently put the lid back on before she poked his eyes out. "He's a good cook."

"Yeah, he cooks for all of us." A new voice said. Clint was walking out of the main door. "Tasha, close the garage, we can head out now." Natasha tossed her bag to Tony, slid inside to press the garage close button and slid back out before it shut. Clint had his bag slung over his shoulder again, and behind him came Will, his hair still wet and looking like he was sleep walking. Clint gripped Will's arm before he swayed over. "Sorry for the wait." Clint flashed a grin at Tony, who couldn't help but grin back. Natasha slid in first, and then Clint. Clint pulled Will into the car and pulled Will so his head was resting on his shoulder. "We could sit in the back, you didn't have to do that."

"It's fine." Tony grinned at Steve, who grumbled the same words. "They don't mind. Is he okay?"

"Yeah, it's low blood pressure. He's usually like this in the morning." Clint absentmindedly rubbed Will's waist, causing Will to whine a little and snuggle into Clint's embrace. "He's a little affectionate when he isn't fully awake." Clint explained lightly, hugging his twin tighter. He noticed Tony reaching for the radio. "Don't turn it down. He needs to wake up, anyway."

Tony shrugged and started his car. The drive was quiet except the radio music, with Bruce flipping through his notes, Steve and Natasha bantering lightly, and Thor snoring. Will looked too comfortable in Clint's arms to actually wake up, but when Tony pulled into his usual parking spot, Will mumbled something incoherent and Clint chuckled lightly. "Come on, you lazy ass. Let's get you to class. Tony sped the entire time here, so I've time to spare until I'm late. Tasha, stall the teacher just in case I'm late." He had to prod Will for another moment until Will forced himself up. He must have been still half asleep, because he pulled at Clint in the next moment, and Clint chuckled. "We're in Tony's car, Will." He reminded gently, but Will shook his head.

"Avert eyes." Natasha warned gently, but no one did as Clint snickered and gently kissed his twin right on the lips, firmly and gently at the same time. One hand held Will's cheek gently and a thumb rubbed right under his eye as they parted. Will seemed content at this and held out his hand, to which Clint pushed the same pen and notebook as the day before. Will was the first out of the car, followed closely by Clint. "I told you guys to avert eyes." Natasha rolled her eyes, plucking the lunch container from Bruce's lap.

"Are you kidding?" Tony found his voice first. "That was some sort of really hot porn."

"Are they always like that?" Steve said weakly, looking flustered. He pushed the seat Will had been occupying forward. "Kissing each other on the cheek, I can get, but on the lips?"

Natasha shrugged. "Just think of it as kissing your mom. Or a good friend. It's not way off the charts." She glanced at Bruce, who was slack-jawed and gripping his notes. "Bruce, relax."

Thor raised an eyebrow. "I believe it's rather the manner that they kissed – there was something sensual about it."

Tony spoke up again, willing blood that had started to flow downward back up into his head. "Yeah. Really hot porn."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Trust me, guys, there is nothing sexual going on in between Will and Clint. They _are_ actually just normal brothers. Just a little touchier than others. You'll get to know them well and you won't need me to make excuses for them sooner or later. In any case, we're gonna be late. And Tony, look after Will. Keep him awake or he'll sleep the whole day."

Neither Tony nor Bruce really knew how to greet Will after that, but thankfully Will took care of it for them when he smiled sleepily and greeted them. His smile was easier, more relaxed than yesterday's, making Tony wonder for a moment if he was drunk. "You're really low on your guard when you're sleepy, huh? You weren't like this yesterday."

"Low blood pressure." Will answered sleepily. "Usually Ethan wakes me up at six thirty and I just sit there. But yesterday I spent the night making lunch for everyone and Clint didn't wake me up until seven thirty." He leaned over, his eyes fluttering shut as he rested his head on his arms. Bruce jabbed Tony on the side, reminding him of Natasha's warning.

Tony would have really liked to see Will sleeping through classes, but he figured Will wouldn't have appreciated that, and it wouldn't really look good for the new student to be sleeping on the second day – so he gently pulled Will upright. "Upsy-daisy. Natasha told me to keep you awake." Will cracked a stunningly blue-green-gray eye open and he smiled sluggishly, but this time he stayed awake. He stared into blank space for first half of the lecture, and Tony was glad it was just AP English Literature for their first period, and technically Will could catch up on it later through Bruce's heavy notes. At least, that's what Tony usually did.

But by the end of the class he was pretty much fully functioning, and apparently incredibly embarrassed about how he'd behaved when he was half-sleepy. "Sorry." He mumbled, looked aghast. "I'm – I'm usually more composed than that… We must've surprised you insanely."

Tony grinned as they walked to the highest Physics class that was offered. "If you're talking about the kiss, it surprised us all pleasantly. It was like hot porn."

The comment caused Will to flush a deeper red and he stuttered, his ears a bright red under short blonde hair. He walked half a pace ahead of them, but apparently his fear of strangers outweighed his embarrassment, because soon he fell back again to match their pace, hugging his notebook tightly. The rest of the day passed by normally, with Will's embarrassment running down as the trio worked on questions together – it was mostly Bruce and Will doing it and Tony teasing – until gym class rolled over and Clint was waiting for them outside the locker room, leaning on the wall. "Will." He grinned when a flush spread on his twin's face. "Remembered this morning?" Will nodded and Clint snickered. He gently held Will's wrist again and the two slid into the locker room.

"Steve, Thor." Bruce greeted, and Steve grinned at them and moved so Bruce could pass over on his way to his locker near Thor's.

Tony quickly opened his own, right next to Steve's. "They're the strangest I've met. There's nothing that keeps anyone from liking Clint." Steve said, quietly but conversationally. Tony peeked over to see Clint too busy teasing Will and Will too busy blushing from remembering their morning to listen to their conversation. "Natasha's hiding something from us about them."

"No shit. I tried googling them yesterday. Nothing comes up. No hits whatsoever. Did you know their first names combined make a certain president's name?" Steve chuckled lightly at his comment.

"She trusts us." Steve concluded, pulling his shirt over his body. "She trusts us to protect them, I think." He looked at Tony. "It's why she taught us all how to hold guns, I think."

Guns. Right. Tony's memory traveled to about a month ago when Bruce had found a pistol in Natasha's room, and she'd taught them all how to hold, aim and shoot with it, on a 'whim,' she had called it back then. Back then he'd thought her owning a pistol in her room had something to do with her being Russian, but now it all made sense. "So?"

"So what?"

"So are you going to? I mean, Steve, we've known the twins for like two days. Not even."

Steve chuckled as he closed his locker and locked it. "You say that like you're not going to." He grinned and nodded to Clint and Will as they slipped out of the locker room. "We'll see, Tony. There's a reason Natasha trusted us with this entire thing. If there's something I learned, there's nothing that she does without meaning to. She meant for us to meet the twins. She probably meant for Thor to see them during history class. I trust Natasha. Don't you?"

Tony nodded reluctantly. Yes, she was a little scary at times, but if it came down to it, he'd known her for almost five years, when they'd all coincidentally met in the same homeroom class in 6th grade. She one was of his friends, the actual friends he cherished and loved and would give up his life for, not that they needed to know that. So yes, he trusted her. "You're right."

"As always."

"Shut up, you dick." Tony punched Steve, but it was affectionate.

They had five classes, gym, and then lunch directly after followed by three more classes. (Tony and Bruce might have hacked into the school system to give them all the same lunch period and similar classes.) So Natasha was waiting for them outside the boy's locker room with the huge lunch container. "I thought girls were the ones that were supposed to take a while in the bathroom."

Clint chirped up before Tony could make a comeback. "We were in the locker room, not bathroom. Plus, I bet you just changed uber fast so you could eat Will's food."

Thor laughed. "It is not often where someone beats Tony to a comeback."

Clint grinned at Thor. "Tony's just gonna have to be faster, then, huh?"

Tony grinned. "Oh yeah? Challenge accepted." He and Clint grinned at each other until Will rolled his eyes and tapped on Clint's knuckle. In response Clint's attention swerved to his twin, his hands catching Will's wrist again before turning back slightly to smirk at Tony. Steve had them all walking outside before Tony could make a snappy comeback.

Natasha pulled the lid open and a hand shot out to grab a burger each – Clint grabbed two – and it was Thor who bit into it first. "This is delicious." He moaned appreciatively. "Do you eat like this every day?"

Clint grinned. "Yeah. Will's a fantastic cook."

"I think this might be a good rival for Bruce's mom's sandwiches." Steve chuckled, taking another bite as Natasha fished out a tomato from the salad. Will was smiling sheepishly at the compliments, and taking bites out of his own hamburger.

"You guys could come over for dinner. I wouldn't mind cooking for all of you." Will spoke up, and then blushed. "Well, if you guys don't mind. I mean, Ethan's not going to be home until late tomorrow night anyway, so…" He trailed off, looking at his twin for rescue. Clint looked amused and bit into his burger, and Will gripped his elbow.

Thor was the one to come to rescue. "Why would we mind eating such delicious food? It is us who should be worried that you would be doing too much to cook for seven."

Steve nodded. "Yeah, I mean, all of this tastes great. We'd love to come over. You know, get to know you guys a little better, too. But wouldn't it be a little too much work? We could get like take out and go over to your house anyway."

Clint was grinning broadly through his burger when Will let go of his elbow. "I don't mind cooking for a lot of people." Will offered, shrugging. Tony noticed he seemed to be a lot more at ease with just that conversation.

Bruce hummed in his throat, picking up a piece of tomato before Natasha could swipe it from him. Natasha glared, but he pretended he didn't notice and popped it into his mouth. Sometimes, Tony thought, Bruce was the only one that could actually stand up to Natasha. "We could pitch in for ingredients. Don't want to wipe your fridge clean. Thor and Steve and Tony have huge stomachs."

Clint grinned, swallowing the last of his burger. "Hey, that sounds like a plan. And then Tasha could like do dishes with me afterward." This brought a groan from Natasha, but she said nothing to threaten Clint's life, which was, honestly, something Tony expected. So they made plans on what to buy and what they'd like to eat, and then suddenly it was a competition to see who could eat more. It had the entire table laughing, and Tony stopped long enough to realize that the twins fit _just right_ into their little closed-off posse. His glance caught Clint's. Clint grinned at him and he couldn't help but mirror the smile.

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I feel like this is moving so slowly . I promise some action soon! 3 I'm having a hard time keeping Clint from just jumping Will... it's too tempting... Review? :3


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I don't own the Avengers or Mission Impossible characters. Jeremy Renner is my ultimate bias currently, so I thought, well, why not bring them together and make them twins who can't live with each other? Categorized under Avengers because it's AU either way, and the fic is going to be in Tony's 3rd person limited narrative, anyway.

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Tangle of Red: Chapter 3

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Will looked a little preoccupied during French, and Tony noticed that he seemed to be writing a plan of attack for the dinner in French. Figured the guy would be fluent enough not to have to actually take any classes. He did about the same (except the language changed to English) through Macroeconomics and Advanced Music Theory. Tony and Bruce steered him to the car, and then waited for the rest as they filed in. Before Tony could stop him, Will had maneuvered himself to the trunk seats, and Clint climbed in after him, leaving Bruce to be squished in between Steve and Thor as Natasha claimed the shotgun. "Maybe you should let one of us sit shotgun." Steve complained. "This is worse than sitting in the trunk seat."

"I have no problem sitting here." Thor exclaimed, folding himself just like he had in the morning. Steve rolled his eyes and settled instead to use the time to ask Bruce about Pre-Calculus. Tony cast a quick glance in the trunk seats. Will wasn't in his line of view, so his guess was that Will was lying down, as Clint was looking down and saying something with a gaze so gentle Tony felt his insides tingle. Even above the noise in the car he heard Will's gentle laughter and Clint's snicker.

It was Natasha who brought him to his senses. "Hey, starstruck." She pinched his forearm just enough to sting sharply for a second and then fade. "Stop admiring them and let's go. Will's gonna need some time to cook up all that for seven people." Right. Dinner.

The ride to the market itself was noneventful, but Tony should have predicted some kind of chaos was inevitable with seven teenage friends in a supermarket. Especially with Thor gulping down all the samples. Will and Clint seemed to find out highly amusing – in fact, Clint joined Thor on devouring the samples and Will made no move to stop his twin. Will continued on with Natasha and Steve and Bruce, reading off his list to fill up the cart as Tony hung near Thor and Clint. The sample workers seemed to have no idea who to yell at, as yelling at Thor and Clint made them just move to another sample table, and there was no adult to yell at for not taking care of their kids.

When the manager came around, fuming, Tony stood in front of his friends and smiled pleasantly. "Problem, manager?"

The man first fumed at him, but his anger subsided a little and he took a look at Tony – and instantly grew pale. "M-Mister Stark." He stammered. "Your friends are… just disrupting our sales…" Tony grinned. Someone who was intimidated, but wasn't intimidated enough to disregard his work. He tugged at Thor and Clint's shirt as the workers looked on.

"You heard the guy. Don't you need to save space for what Will's cooking?" This seemed to work and Thor and Clint popped one last piece of fruit into their mouth before following Tony like an obedient puppy. One of his puppies left him when he caught sight of his twin, but it was worth it to see Clint grip Will's wrist again and the smile on the twins' faces widen. Tony wondered for a second if Clint held onto the wrist because they couldn't hold hands in public.

The drive to Clint and Will's place was even more chaotic, particularly because Thor decided to open a package of Poptarts. Will looked somewhat frightened when he ran through the entire box during the 10 minute drive. "We have more Poptarts at home." Clint offered, looking amused and amazed at the same time.

"And coffee?"

"Uh, yes, and coffee." At this point Natasha was stifling laughter into her hand, and Steve was grinning broadly. "Although Ethan may not completely approve if you use up all his hand-ground French vanilla mix." Clint replied, looked hilariously amused.

"You have to excuse Thor." Bruce muttered, craning his neck to look at the back seat. "If it isn't bad enough that his name comes from a Norse god, he acts like he's from another planet."

Clint grinned. "That's okay, we appreciate good food, too."

God, Tony could get addicted to that grin. He pulled into Will and Clint's driveway, and saw Clint nudge Will awake. It was Natasha who unlocked the door – of course she would have a key – and Clint and Will entered last, Will rubbing his eyes sleepily. As soon as the door was closed, Tony turned to see Clint press a kiss onto Will's lips again and then another to his temple. The bookbag was tossed on the kitchen counter, and Clint wrapped his arms around Will's waist, resting his chin on his twin's shoulder. Will walked on, their footsteps perfectly synchronized so neither was tripping over the other. "We can watch movies, if you want. I can start a little later… Or maybe games? What would you guys like to do? Oh, Clint, go get Thor his Poptarts and coffee."

Clint grumbled as he relinquished his grip on Will, but nodded Thor over. Thor followed enthusiastically, and soon they heard the crinkle of Poptart wrappers and the coffee maker being turned on. In the end Natasha chose a movie, and it was popped into the Blue-ray player. Will waited until Clint and Thor were back, Thor with an armful of Poptarts and a mug of steaming coffee. Clint sat in the single-seat couch and Will joined him, curling into his twin's side.

Tony watched them more than the movie. He'd seen Iron Man already, if only for the reason that everyone kept telling him that he looked like a young Robert Downey Jr. He was _way_ better looking. Clint and Will weren't really paying attention to the movie either – Will was resting contently in Clint's arms, and they kept whispering to each other and sharing secret smiles. Clint would regularly plant a kiss on Will's cheek or temple, and Will had his fingers laced through Clint's left hand. It was a bizarre picture because they looked exactly alike. Tony wondered if it was some form of narcissism, except the relationship seemed too sacred to taint it like that.

The movie was only halfway through when Will fell asleep. Natasha touched a hand to Clint's knee and both of them whispered, looking slightly worried. Clint pushed a hand under short blonde bangs, and shook his head, biting his lip. Natasha looked slightly concerned, a look that was foreign for her face. She reached up and placed her forehead to Will's, and pulled back, looking puzzled. "Bruce." She whispered, and the brunette looked at her. "Could you check if Will has a fever?"

Bruce slid over and placed his left hand to his forehead and his right to Will's. "No, his temperature's normal. His breathing is fine, too. Is there something wrong?"

Clint stroked his twin's chin worriedly. "No, it's just… Well, he usually has a problem waking up, but after that he's fine throughout the day. It's not like him to fall asleep so easily with all that noise. And he hasn't taken naps since he was like five."

Bruce frowned lightly. "Low blood pressure, right? Is there anything else?"

"Low blood sugar, too. But he takes his – ah, damnit." He stood, grumbling. "No wonder." He stood up gently, sliding out of the couch without rousing Will. "He forgot to take his pills today morning. It got too hectic with him falling asleep on his eggs." He was smiling, but Tony read the panic in his eyes, so he got up to follow Clint to the kitchen. "Ethan would never have forgotten." Clint muttered, biting the inside of his cheeks. "I can't believe I forgot. I'm supposed to be taking care of him…"

"Hey, relax." Tony reached out, gently gripping Clint's shoulder. "It's not severe, right? Or he'd be having seizures? Just get him his pills and he'll be fine."

Clint sighed. "Right. Pills." He opened a cabinet and Tony stared. It was full of medicine bottles. "I'm getting too dependent on Ethan to take care of Will…" He muttered, taking out five bottles.

Tony eyed them. "He needs to take all that just for low blood sugar?"

"Huh? No, this one's for his allergic asthma. Thank goodness it rained during the night and pollen levels were low. The others are vitamin supplements that he needs." Clint said, shrugging. He shook out a pill each and pushed them back onto the shelf.

"That's a lot of pills." Tony whistled lowly, picking up a cup to hand to Clint. "Is that all for Will?"

Clint paused, and then smiled sadly. "…Yeah." He poured water into the cup and sighed. "I'm sure you could tell, but I was the dominant twin in the womb. Sucked away all his nutrients until he was born severely underweight. The files say the doctors didn't really expect him to survive the first few days." He said, looking pained. "He was always sickly as a kid, and still is, now." Clint talked as if it was his fault, although Tony couldn't really see how it was his fault if he couldn't exactly control how he was in the womb. "Natasha and Ethan have been trying to get his stamina up. He likes basketball, so we play often, but he has to sit down after maybe fifteen minutes. I mean, he's pretty normal now, though. Works out with me, goes running sometimes if he feels like it, whatever. It's just the low blood sugar and the low blood pressure that's the annoyance now. Sometimes he gets migraines, so there's a bottle for that, and then we have like twenty bottles of different Tylenol and Ibuprofen up there, too."

He gently shook Will awake. "Come on, Will." He handed Will the pills. "Let's get you a little more awake." Will groggily swallowed each pill. Tony noticed the movie was paused, with Thor and Steve hovering near Natasha, Bruce kneeling next to the couch, and Natasha sitting on the couch arm. After a few minutes of silence, Clint smiled. "Feeling better?"

"Ugh, yeah." Will rubbed his head, as if he had a headache. "Sorry. I didn't even realize I didn't take my pills."

Bruce looked concerned. "Is it really bad? Maybe you should carry pills around with you in case? I could just put some in my bag, since you don't carry one around."

Will smiled gratefully. "It's okay. This is the first time I've forgotten to take meds in the morning, and usually the worst I'd get is get really tired. Plus, Clint carries around my pills just in case already."

Bruce didn't seem convinced. "Low blood sugar can lead to serious seizures, you know. And you're taking a lot of other pills, too. It really wouldn't trouble me to carry a small bottle of pills in my bag, just one dosage could be enough to save your life." He looked to Clint to support him.

And of course, Clint nodded. "Yeah, sounds like a good idea, just in case. Are you sure you don't mind, though?"

Bruce frowned. "Of course not. It's just some pills. It'll weigh nothing." So Clint ran back to the kitchen. After a few sounds of plastic hitting each other later, Clint handed a small plastic bottle to Bruce. Bruce slid it into the front pocket of his bag, the one he usually never used. Tony would have to remember that it was there, just in case.

"It's one dose. It should be enough in emergencies, Will doesn't have a severe case of anything." Clint rubbed Will's cheek. "If you're feeling better, you should get cooking. It's past five." Will rolled his eyes and mumbled something about someone being always hungry. The movie started again, but Tony tagged along, following Will into the kitchen.

"You don't want to watch the movie?" Will's eyes were smiling. "You look like the actor. I forget his name."

"Robert Downey Jr. And yeah, I've been told often." Tony flashed a grin. "I think I'm hotter." This earned an easy chuckle from Will as he drew an apron around himself. It was plain and a soft kind of green. "Hey, I don't know if this is insulting or not, but you look really at home right now. If it's insulting, I don't mean it as one."

Will laughed again, washing the thawed out chicken. "Yeah, I've been told. Clint always tells me I'd make a good housewife to Ethan one day." He hummed lightly. "If you're going to be here, you should help me." He winked and pointed to the cabinet above him. "Take out the biggest pot you can find, drizzle some olive oil on it and have a wooden spoon ready."

Tony had never been asked to cook before, but somehow he felt like pointing that out would make him come off as the biggest stuck-up snob, so he did as instructed. Cooking couldn't be that hard, right? Bruce had said something about it being similar to putting in perfect amounts of chemicals for a reaction. Soon squares of chicken and various other vegetables were poured into the pot, and Tony was told to "keep stirring so it doesn't burn." A block of butter and another drizzle of olive oil joined and Will watched Tony. "You're doing good. Just keep at it, okay?" Will reached over to lower the heat, and Tony stood by obediently. If this was all cooking was, that wasn't very difficult.

He would soon retract his thoughts as he watched Will. Will did about fifty things at once, boiling water, making sauce, cooking pasta, checking inside the oven for the meat, reaching for a spice, adjusting fire levels, and everything else that made even Tony's head throb a little. But by the end of about an hour, Will had managed to cook up a bunch of things to set on the table, including steak for everyone, salad (with cherry tomatoes for Natasha and Bruce), a different kind of pasta then the one they'd had in the morning, and a bunch of other sides.

Steve's jaw dropped open. "Wow." He breathed, rushing up to take the heavy salad bowl from Will's hands. "You really didn't have to do all this."

Will smiled. "Of course I did. I really don't mind. I don't know how it'll taste, though."

Natasha slid first into the seat at the center in front of the salad bowl, and Bruce sat across from her. Will in next to Natasha and Clint picked the seat right next to her, so Tony plopped down next to Clint, which left Thor and Steve to sit on the other side. Before Steve could say anything, Natasha had jabbed at the salad, attacking the tomatoes, so Bruce responded with equal ferocity, and Thor started to pour out the contents of the pasta bowl onto his steak.

It was an unruly dinner that had Will and Clint laughing the entire time, and Tony grinned as Clint picked up the competition against Steve and Thor to see who could eat more. Thor obviously won in that aspect, wolfing down when Steve and Clint collapsed. Natasha and Bruce had a little tomato battle, but in the end what mattered was that the food was cleared. "I can't believe you guys ate it all." Will laughed, stacking plates so he could carry them to the sink.

Thor stood and took the plates. "Steve and I will do the dishes. That was a magnificent meal." Neither Natasha nor Clint pointed out that they had been planning to do the dishes. Will must have felt as though he was scared Steve and Thor together would shatter dishes, because even as the two did dishes, he hovered around nervously and helped them put dishes back before everyone was crashed in the living room again.

Everyone was in the room again, chatting. The hot subject was of course Clint and Will, but the twins – with Natasha's help – were being incredibly general and barely answering their questions. Their look seemed to say, _you'll find out later._ In the middle, Will's phone rang and a smile spread on his lips. He excused himself quietly, and Tony slipped out from the loud group.

"We invited the guys over. Yeah, we're all fine. I cooked for us. Clint and I are gonna be fine. Tasha's with us and her parents are across the street if we need anything." A pause, and a chuckle. "How's Madrid?" Another soft laugh. "I miss you, too. I'll see you tomorrow." A pause, and then, "Ethan, I love you, too. Now get some sleep. It's like 3 AM over there, isn't it?" Tony heard the phone click shut. And then, "Tony, you aren't very great at spying on people." Will laughed quietly and Tony sheepishly stepped out from around the corner. "You realize Tasha and Clint saw you, but they just let you go."

Tony had figured that. "So will you tell us your secret?"

Will laughed gently. "Not yet." He reached over to gently cup Tony's elbow, sending a wave of shivers down his spine. It was the same time of gentle touch Will usually gave Clint. "But I won't deny that there is no secret." His multi-colored eyes twinkled and he led the two of them back to the living room. Natasha rolled her eyes at Tony and Clint smirked at him before he pulled Will down to sit next to him. The talk gradually turned from Clint and Will to just general gossip that Natasha obviously had a large part in steering. Gradually Thor and Steve took over the TV on a game console, and Natasha and Clint got sucked into their Wii game as well. Bruce, Tony and Will stuck to watching and going over Physics notes.

Tony took over Clint sometime before the clock read 2:00 AM, and Will curled up on the floor, resting his head on Clint's thigh. It wasn't until 3:34 AM that Bruce suggested that they really did need to sleep, even if it was a Saturday that everyone could sleep late.

"Do you mind wearing Ethan's stuff? Cause while I think Tony and Bruce can sorta deal with our clothes, they're definitely way too small for you and Thor."

Steve shrugged and took the large t-shirt he was handed. "It's not a problem for us, but would Ethan be okay?"

"Yeah, he won't give damn. Just toss it in the laundry when you're done with it." Clint handed them spare toothbrushes – it turned out Natasha, of course, had her own. She even had her own small room set out for her next to Clint and Will's room. She grumbled when she was suggested that she sleep in Ethan's bed, because it'd be weird for the other guys to do so, but climbed into Ethan's bed and was asleep in ten seconds. Bruce took Natasha's bed and the two beds in the guest room were given to Steve and Thor, which left Tony, for the first time ever in his life, without a bed. Steve and Thor suggested pushing the beds together so the three of them could lie down on it, but Clint offered to spread out thick blankets on the floor of their room, and hell would freeze over before Tony refused a chance to sleep in the same room as the twins.

Tony wasn't surprised when the room he entered sported a large king-sized bed instead of two smaller ones. Of course the twins would sleep together in one bed. Clint had somehow tugged Will's school clothes off and Will had a loose t-shirt and shorts on. Clint tugged out three thick blankets to spread on the floor and tugged out a thinner one for Tony. "Good? Will and I can sleep on the floor instead, if you want."

"No, that's totally unnecessary. I'm fine down here." First time standing in front of a stove, first time sleeping on the floor. The twins were just a new experience for him in general. He watched as Clint changed quickly, well-muscled body moving in liquid grace as he pulled on a black sleeveless and shorts.

Clint nudged Will gently, bending down to kiss his temple. "Will, get up for a sec. Let's get under the blankets, or you'll catch a cold." He chuckled when Will muttered incoherently but tucked his knees to his chest, rolling over to the edge. Clint laughed quietly and tugged the blanket from under his twin. "Come here." He said, affection rolling off his voice in waves. Another kiss was pressed to his temple when Will reached up, and Clint laughed again. Tony saw Clint's arm wrap securely around Will's waist before the light was turned off with a clap of Clint's hands, and exhaust carried him to sleep before he could think about anything else.

When he woke up the next morning for some reason and checked the clock, it was 7. He would have gone back to sleep but then realized one of the twins – Clint – was missing from the bed, and he crept out, making sure not to bother Will. A quick round in the other rooms told Tony that the rest of his friends were sleeping – he hadn't even needed to actually open Thor and Steve's room. They were having a snoring contest.

"Hey, you're up early." Clint greeted with his trademark easy grin when Tony entered the kitchen. He was wearing a blue hoodie on top of a white shirt and black sweats. Definitely not what he'd worn to sleep last night. "I just came back from a run." Clint explained. "Want some orange juice?"

"I didn't brush my teeth yet. I'm uh.. not really fully awake…"

"Just woke up and realized I was gone?" Clint gulped down a glass. "I'm gonna head back to bed, too, after a quick shower." The glass was put in the sink. Tony went back to the room while Clint slipped in the shower. Instead of going back to his makeshift bed on the floor, Tony sat on the edge of the bed, watching Will. Will's face was completely relaxed. He was curled up like a fetus, and Tony frowned. He'd read that the fetus position wasn't too good to sleep in. The dark blue blanket pooled around him, hugging him protectively. Tony could just barely make out the outlines of a hand curled like a slightly in the relaxed position.

He didn't know how much longer he'd spent just examining Will in sleep, but Clint's amused voice snapped him out of his reverie. "Yeah, he's nice to watch when he's sleeping, but that's a little creepy, Tony." Clint's voice was laughing, but Tony caught the slightly wary look in his eyes. His hair was dripping onto the towel he had draped over his shoulders, and he rubbed at his hair, still watching Tony from the corner of his eyes.

Tony shrugged. He hadn't exactly done anything wrong. "It's not good for him to sleep all curled up like this." He offered.

Clint frowned. "Is he curled up again?" The damp towel was hung on a chair. "I read that somewhere, so I keep trying to keep him from doing it but whenever I leave the bed he does that." Clint gently pulled on Will's legs. Will complied, but turned over and drew his legs up again. Clint sighed. "Gonna go back to sleep?"

"Yeah." Tony slid off the bed onto the floor. "I didn't mean any harm, you know, when…"

"Yeah, I know." Clint's grin was genuine this time. "Don't worry about it, Tony. I just get protective over Will." He tugged his twin to his chest and waved at Tony. Soon Tony heard the breathing even out, but he himself was falling into sleep's gentle embrace.

He didn't wake up until 10:14, and only because Natasha stepped on his knee. Hard. "OW!" Natasha grinned triumphantly at him. She had on loose sweats and a shirt, and still managed to look stunning. "What was that for?" He sat up, rubbing his knee with a glare.

"I tried waking you in civilized ways. It didn't work." She explained with a smirk. "Come on, everyone else is awake. Even Thor." She moved to the bed and he saw her shake who he guessed was Will awake. "Will." Tony noticed Natasha wasn't stepping on _Will_. "Get up, it's past 10. Good." Natasha helped Will lean on the bed and squeezed his wrist. She threw her glance at Tony. "Let's go, get up. Go brush your teeth. You don't want breakfast?"

Natasha pushed him out the door, and Tony glanced back. "We're just going to leave him there?"

"Yeah, low blood pressure, remember? He sort of has to stay in bed for a while to wake up fully. Clint'll come take care of him in a moment." Natasha steered Tony to the bathroom, waited for him to finish, and then steered him to the dining room. Thor was attacking Poptarts again. Bruce was making eggs for the rest of the crew. Clint was nowhere to be seen. Natasha sent him an I-told-you-so look, so Tony guessed Clint was already with Will.

He wanted to go see Clint taking care of Will, but knew he'd be pushing his luck too far. He dug through Bruce's scrambled eggs and bit down on the toast. About half an hour later, Clint appeared with Will in tow. Will looked slightly out of it, but he smiled at Tony when their eyes met. Steve poured out a cup of water as Clint fished for the pills, and Will swallowed them easily before digging into the plate of eggs Bruce offered him.

Everyone skirted nervously around Will, though Tony knew better than to worry when Clint was acting fine. But no one relaxed until Will was fully awake, no longer bumping into things and completely aware. Thor sighed a breath of relief. "I do not know how you deal with this every morning. I would perish of nerves."

Clint laughed. "It's never really bad. Yesterday is as worst as it gets." His fingers skirted over Will's back and rubbed his neck. "Thanks for worrying, though." He kissed Will's temple and Will smiled.

"You all need a _shower_." Natasha announced, coming into the kitchen, drying her hair with a towel. Tony hadn't even realized she'd gone. "I'm not staying in a room with six sweaty men."

"Five." Clint corrected. "I showered after my run."

Steve looked uncomfortable. "Is it really okay if we use your shower? I feel like we've intruded enough… Thor pretty much destroyed all your Poptarts, we're wearing your clothes, we borrowed toothbrushes…"

Will waved it off. "It's no big deal. You can take a shower." Tony managed to claim the first shower and he shut the door to the shower. There was one set of bath equipment. Tony had secretly expected two – one for the twins and one for Ethan. The shampoo was normal enough, but the body wash smelled of fresh mint. He sniffed at it for a bit, felt like a creep, and snickered. The twins had an effect on him that no one else did, and he was honestly enjoying it.

It took about two hours for everyone to shower – in the middle they had to wait for the hot water to restore itself – and get redressed. In the end Will whipped up a simple lunch-type of thing before everyone headed out, thanking the twins for food and everything else. Tony dared to think that the twins looked disappointed to see them go. Natasha and Thor declined the offer for a ride home – Natasha lived across the street and Thor lived at a five minute walking distance – so Tony only drove Bruce and Steve.

It was Steve who broke the silence first. "So what do you think of them?"

"Way too affectionate with each other for my own health." Tony quipped. "I think Clint kissed Will more times yesterday than the total number of times I've kissed any girl." He considered his statement for a second. "Okay, maybe not more. But about the same times."

Bruce laughed in the back seat. "They're different, aren't they? But not unpleasantly."

Steve looked back to him. "What was with you offering to hold medicine for Will?"

Bruce shrugged. "It's not a big deal. And if something like yesterday happens on a severe scale again, at least we'll be prepared." He seemed thoughtful for a second. "Tony, did you see all the medicine they had? I saw it on a glance when I was doing the eggs…"

Tony frowned slightly, pulling into Steve's street. "I saw. I asked Clint and he said they were all for Will. Um. Low blood pressure, low blood sugar, allergic asthma, some migraine stuff, a lot of vitamin supplements and a ton of Tylenol."

Steve didn't get off, and instead crossed his arms across his chest. "How come he's so sick? He looks perfectly healthy. Healthier than most guys. He's pretty fit."

Bruce's brows crinkled lightly, like it always did when he was thinking. "In a lot of cases with twins, a dominant twin grows. In many cases, the dominant twin sort of out-nutritions the other one in the womb, and the other one just sorta disappears. My guess is that maybe Clint did that in the womb, but it wasn't enough for Will to actually die in the womb, so he was just born weak. With effort he must have gotten over the actual physical weaknesses, but low blood sugar, low blood pressure, allergic asthma and migraines aren't something you can get rid of with a workout." He considered himself for a bit. "Maybe that's why Clint is so protective over Will."

Steve snorted. "I feel like Clint would be protective over Will even if that didn't happen. In any case, I'll see you guys on Monday. Are you picking the two up again?"

Tony shrugged. " I don't think so. Ethan said only tomorrow, right?"

Steve paused. "What do you think Ethan does? They pretty much just skirted around that whole issue. And why Ethan's taking care of them, even though he's not a legal adult yet." He sighed. "They just had a 'you'll see if you stick around' kind of answer to all of them."

Bruce nodded. "I think they're just trying to see if they can trust us. From what I can gather, they've never had close friends outside of Natasha, and it's pretty much like, if Natasha trusts us, maybe we're trustworthy, you know? But Clint _did_ let something slip. Remember, when we were talking? He said something along the lines of giving us a chance to back out if we wanted. So did Natasha. They sort of seemed to imply there was going to be some sort of danger if we got too close to them."

Steve snorted. "I doubt it was a slip. Well, we're always ones to step up to challenges. How dangerous can it get?"

Tony didn't mention the empty Google pages, but he had a feeling that the kind of danger that Clint and Natasha were talking about weren't going to be anything that any of them could imagine.

However, the next few days, and then weeks, and then three months, passed by without any sort of incidents. They learned that Will and Clint were allergic to mangoes, and that Clint had once broken an arm trying to act hero for a little girl he used to like when they were in second grade, but they were little details and had nothing really to do with anything they were hiding. Will passed all of his exams with flying colors, and Bruce and Tony stopped worrying about his lack of school supplies.

But everyone gradually got used to their touching, and their presence became an important part of the group. Clint and Will were definitely aware of the whispering around them, but when Steve brought it up worriedly, Will had brushed it off, shrugging. "It's nothing new. Plus, we have you guys."

It was exactly three months, two weeks and three days after the first time Ethan had asked Tony to pick Will and Clint up that Tony got a call from Clint. At midnight. [Hey, Tony, can you pick me and Tasha up tomorrow?] Tony said yes. But how about Will? [Will's really sick. He caught the stomach virus that's been going around… He catches anything going around. Ethan's gonna stay home to take care of him until he has to go to work. Wait, were you asleep? Natasha told me you don't go to sleep until like 2, so I'd be safe calling you now.]

Tony stifled a yawn. "No, I wasn't asleep. I was going to, but I wasn't yet. Is he okay?" He heard Clint sigh on the other end. "He's not really bad, is he? Maybe you should call Bruce and ask him what's the best. Bruce is like almost a doctor. Bruce definitely doesn't sleep at midnight, so you'd be safe."

Clint laughed on his end. [Yeah, maybe I will. You can pick us up at 7:45, if you don't mind.]

"Yeah. I hope he feels better."

[Me too.] Tony stared at his phone a long after Clint hung up. He couldn't fight some sort of sinking feeling, but he pushed it away. Stomach virus wasn't that big of a deal, even if Will was a little weaker than a normal person. Maybe he'd be in bed for a little longer, but nothing else, right?

He spent about two hours rolling in bed before he texted Natasha. [Hey, is Will okay?]

The answer came back right away. [He's giving us all hell throwing up everywhere.] He could almost hear her tense voice. [But we called a doctor like Bruce suggested and he's sure it's just a case of bad stomach flu and that he should stop vomiting tomorrow.]

[Why weren't you asleep?]

The answer came right away again. [Sometimes I wonder if you really deserve the title of genius, Tony. I was taking care of Will, duh. Ethan needed sleep because he has work all day tomorrow, so Clint and I have been taking shifts. Why weren't YOU asleep?]

[I was worried. Couldn't sleep.]

[Don't be retarded, self-proclaimed genius. He'll be fine, it's just stomach virus. I'm more worried about you driving us into a tree tomorrow if you haven't got your sleep. Night, Tony.]

Tony smiled, the sinking feeling flitting away. He could just see Natasha rolling her eyes at him, but her voice was warm, understanding. Her sharp but joking insult at his intelligence and driving abilities were just what he'd needed. He wondered if that made him masochistic.

He woke just in time to make a drive around to pick up Steve, Bruce, Thor and then Natasha and Clint. Clint sank into the seats. "Are you all right? You look ill. Maybe you should be the one in bed, not your brother." Thor looked concerned.

"No, it's just… we share a lot of feelings, so when he's sick I get all sluggish, too." He rubbed his head. "It's good, though. I can tell if he's lying about how he feels or not." He sunk into the seat and closed his eyes. "And it doesn't really help that he's not right here. And Tasha and I got like two hours of sleep each last night."

So the radio was turned off, and Bruce and Steve chatted quietly about Shakespeare so Clint and Natasha could catch a few more minutes of sleep to the ride to school. Clint still looked a little pale, but his grin was genuine when Thor clapped him on the back and assured him that he'd be taken care of.

It was a little weird for Will to be not present next to them, and for Bruce to tell the teacher that Will was out with stomach flu. He sort of missed the intense focus that Will had, and it also meant that Bruce and he had to actually pay attention and he couldn't make jokes because Will wouldn't be able to explain it to them afterward.

So he was bored and hoping something would happen. At the end of third period, someone knocked his binder from the table and all of his papers went flying. "Go ahead," he told Bruce, sighing. "I'll catch up. Save a seat for me." The girl who'd knocked his folder off apologized a million times, but he waved her away, as well, scooping his papers up as neatly as possible. He was trying to get them to all go in the same direction when the door burst open.

"Tony!" It was Clint, looking as white as a sheet of paper. "Tony, your car - I need – Something's wrong with Will."

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Ha! How do you like THAT cliffhanger? LOL 3. Finally moving toward a _bit_ of action. It's a little longer than the first two chapters, but still it's... not too long. I think. I hope. I think I'm going to be updating every four days or so, and thank you so much for the reviews! Love you all 3 But don't let that stop you from reviewing more. Hehe 3


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I don't own the Avengers or Mission Impossible characters. Jeremy Renner is my ultimate bias currently, so I thought, well, why not bring them together and make them twins who can't live with each other? Categorized under Avengers because it's AU either way, and the fic is going to be in Tony's 3rd person limited narrative, anyway.

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Tangle of Red: Chapter 4

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Tony didn't need any other words. He shoved the sheets in his bag – he'd organize it later – and grabbed Clint's wrist to run to the parking lot. Thankfully, fourth period was the start of the lunch periods and no one bugged them as they ran out of the building. Clint was white and shaking as he buckled in, and Tony didn't bother with speed restrictions. "No." Clint suddenly said. "No, not this way."

"What? This is the way to your house."

"No. Oh, noooo." Clint moaned. "He's not home. He's not home!" Tony slammed on the brakes, causing a lot of honking, as Clint fumbled with his phone. Clint's teeth chattered. "Ethan!" He almost screamed, on the verge of tears. "There's something – someone must have taken Will – he's not home –I feel something, he's so _scared_ and…" He paused, shaking violently. "I'm with Tony. I – I asked him to drive me – I couldn't – I don't… Okay…"

The phone was handed to Tony and Clint buried his face in his hands, his breaths ragged, moaning as if he was in pain. Tony took the phone. [Tony?]

"Ye-yeah. What's going on? I don't-"

[First, Tony, I _need_ you to stay calm. Clint must be a wreck right now, so if you're going to start panicking, it's going to be a complete mess. Do you understand?] Calm? Right. Deep breaths. Deeeeeep breaths. It was difficult with Clint having everything short of a seizure right next to him, but he forced his breathing to slow and his brain to start working again before Ethan started to talk again. [Clint will fill you in on the details. Just… for now, tell Clint to turn the tracker on his phone on, and just drive as he asks you to. I'll pay you for all this later, just…]

"No, I… what? I don't need to get paid." Tony's mind was running, and he glanced over at Clint, whose fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles were turning white. "I don't get it. What's going on?"

[Clint will tell you. I'll tell you one thing, Tony. I know Natasha taught you guys all how to shoot. Clint has two pistols in his bag. _Keep it on you at all times_ and don't get separated.] With that Ethan had hung up.

Tony stared at the phone for a while, and then he handed it to Clint. "Ethan says, turn on the tracker. And he told me to drive as you ask me to." Clint fumbled with his phone for a moment, then his phone started to ping softly. "Clint. Directions." He'd ask about it all while he was driving. Clint pointed him in directions and then he frowned after about ten minutes. "This is… this is the way to JFK. The airport. Clint, do you think…"

Clint let out a low moan. "The _airport_?" His teeth chattered violently.

Tony stared and they drove in silence, Tony pushing speed limits like no other. "Clint. Will you tell me now? Also, take out the guns in your bag. So I was right when I saw a gun on your first day here, right?"

Clint smiled shakily. "Yeah. Tasha always said you'd find out first." He reached into his bag to slip the two handguns out. He pushed one under Tony's thigh. "Will's got eidetic memory." He offered softly. "Like, not those fake kinds or incomplete kinds. Actual, genuine, complete eidetic memory. His brain records everything like a computer. He remembers every detail of every scene, whether it be a smell or a sound or a sensation or a sight… He's the only one in the world." Clint's voice was shaking.

Tony nodded for him to continue. That made sense, then, why Will didn't have to take any notes.

Clint looked out the window. "It sort of came into view when we were toddlers. It's the reason our parents died. Ethan's parents were part of a government agency, and they took us in so they could protect us. Same thing with Natasha's parents. The four of them were assigned to us, but Ethan's parents were killed when we were eight and Will had a kidnapping. Ethan was 12 then. The government then assigned Ethan to Will and Natasha to me. They've been training since they were walking, so they were great then, too, but…" He trailed off. "Will's taken at least once every year. That's why Will's afraid of new people. His memory's so valuable just about every intelligence agency in the world wants him or wants to kill him. Not only that, the time he spent with Ethan's parents and Natasha's parents and being paraded through government agencies gave him a lot of information on secret things, so all these terrorists-" Clint suddenly doubled over, clutching his stomach. He let out a choked scream, and Tony reached over, alarmed. "Oh, no, nonononono." He was shaking. "Tony, drive faster."

"What happened?"

"He's stabbed, shot, I don't know! Something in his stomach." Clint's phone rang shrilly and Clint jumped. "Ethan!" He picked up, sobbing. "They shot him, they stabbed him, I don't know."

Tony reached over to grip Clint's hand. Clint clung on. [Clint, calm down. If you're all panicked like this, it'll carry over to Will and he'll be worse.] Ethan's voice was soothing, but urgent. [They won't kill him. They won't do anything to kill him. If they were going to kill him, they would have killed him back at the house. I called to let you know Jane and Benji are already at JFK. Benji shut off all flights going out and brought back a few that left in the past hour. They didn't take him, Clint. We'll get him back.]

Clint's hand in Tony's shook but he relaxed. Slightly, but all the same. At least it was at the point where Clint was playing with the safety of the gun instead of curling up into a ball. Although Tony didn't actually know if that was an improvement. "Cargo." Clint said quietly when the airport came to view. "Here, turn here." No one seemed to mind an SUV suddenly rolling into the cargo area, but an incredibly sexy tanned woman tapped their window when Tony rolled into a corner. "Jane." Clint choked.

The woman – Jane – hugged Clint tightly and then nodded at Tony. "Stay close." She advised. "Disable the safety on your gun, Tony." Tony did, didn't ask how she knew him, and told himself now that he was fully able to shoot himself in the foot or something. Clint held his handheld as if it was a part of him, so Tony's pride got in the way before he said something about it.

He was walking half a pace in front of Jane when gunshots rang. Jane let out a curse and pulled Clint and Tony to the ground and then behind a car, running to another car herself. "Cover me." Clint hissed to Tony.

"Cover you? I can't aim!"

"You don't need to. Just hold the gun over your head and just keep firing so they can't get close. Don't point it in Jane's direction, though." Clint's voice was steely, determined. It was a stark difference – haha, stark – from the shaking wreck he had been in the car. So Tony just held the gun and started to fire, trying to keep Jane's general direction in mind. The initial shock wore off gradually and he kept letting off rounds. He heard pained cries soon, and looked awed at Clint, who spared him a smile. "I don't miss." He said simply.

But soon it was obvious that nothing was going to get done, and Clint looked uneasy again. He was clutching his stomach as if he'd gotten shot, but a close look told Tony that he wasn't hurt. Was it where he'd felt the pain from Will? Clint pressed into his side, shaking, and Tony realized he was out of rounds. But suddenly the shooting had stopped and Tony heard a lot of flesh hitting other flesh. Clint's eyes widened, and he shot up. "Ethan!"

Tony grabbed Clint and yanked him back down. Something told him it wasn't the smartest idea to be standing so tall yelling with people shooting. "It's okay." Clint gripped his hand for a second, squeezed it and let go. It was strangely reassuring. "Ethan and Jane won't let us get hurt. Come with me." He held his hand out, and Tony took it without a thought.

Clint was up first, and Tony stood. Ethan spared them a glance from his manhandling and nodded quickly, and then Tony was being dragged. Clint was headed toward a certain plane. But of course he would know exactly which one. Tony took the gun hanging limply by Clint's side, and Clint reacted immediately, other hand reaching up in an obviously menacing stance. He froze when he registered it was Tony and then dropped his hand, breathing heavily. "It'll be better with me." Clint explained softly. "I'm a better shot. I don't miss."

More questions ran through Tony's head, but he realized it was obviously not the best time. He followed quietly instead, and when he got to use his name to order some airplane staff to drop the cargo door down, he felt finally useful. Clint pulled Tony up the hatch, his hand grip firm to keep Tony from slipping. Clint was _much_ more nimble than the average guy. When they were in the cargo area, Clint ran straight to a large suitcase and it was Tony who unlocked it because Clint's hands were shaking too much. "Fuck." Tony said quietly.

Will was curled up into the suitcase, crammed next to an oxygen tank. A mask was fit over his mouth and nose, over a ball gag that was shoved into his lips. His wrists and ankles were tied tightly, and Tony could see they'd chafed the skin. Something was protruding out of his abdomen, leaking blood sluggishly. He was awake, Tony realized, but just barely.

Clint reached into the suitcase with shaky hands. The first thing he did was grip Will's hand with one hand and brush his tears away with the other. "I'm here." He said softly, just barely enough for Tony to hear. "I'm here, it's going to be okay. You're going to be okay." He slid the oxygen mask from Will's mouth and unbuckled the gag. It came away with a trail of blood and saliva, and Clint wiped it away calmly. He fit the oxygen mask back over Will's lips, and then gently, slowly, pulled Will up to his lap. "You'll be okay." He repeated, moving slowly. "Don't talk, Will, but keep your eyes on me. Don't go to sleep. I know you're tired, but you know the drill. Focus on me. Don't go to sleep."

Will nodded faintly, and then managed to smile weakly at Tony, who couldn't take his gaze off the _thing_ in Will's abdomen. Exactly fourteen seconds later, Ethan came rushing to their side. "Ambulance will be here in thirty seconds, Will. Just hang on." A switchblade worked at the ropes on the wrists first and then the ones on his ankles, and Clint made a strangled noise when it fell away to reveal bleeding wrists. "Be careful with him, Clint." Clint nodded and gingerly pulled Will up so Will's head was resting on his shoulder, and Clint was whispering things Tony couldn't hear to Will, pressing kisses every other second to his face. Ethan clapped a hand on Tony's shoulder. "You did good, Tony." He sighed. "You did good. Come with us to the hospital. I'm sure you have about a million questions."

Tony couldn't take his eyes off the twins. "Do I get answers?"

"Yes. You get answers this time." Ethan smiled tiredly as people dressed in white filed in and pulled Will into a stretcher. "I think you've deserved them, don't you?"

The rest of the ride was a blur to Tony. Ethan drove Tony's car – Tony had never let anyone else drive any of his cars, but as he'd noticed before, the twins were opening up a lot of firsts for him. The hospital that they arrived at was something even Tony had never seen before, some sort of small but incredibly high-tech hospital off in the rural area. They let Clint enter the operating room without a fuss, and Ethan and Tony sat in front of the double doors as the [In Surgery] light above the door lit up.

Ethan looked at Tony, who slumped in his chair. "Where are we?" He asked weakly, feeling the adrenaline fade away.

"We're at a hospital reserved solely for top-secret government agency workers." Ethan responded easily, smiling. He didn't seem worried about Will. "Will is going to be fine." Ethan said softly, and Tony wondered warily if he could read minds. "If he wasn't, Clint would be having a lot more problems." Ethan assured. "We're safe here. Everyone here has gone through maximum background checks and everything is monitored by the highest people. So worry more about yourself than Will. Did you hurt anything?"

"No," Tony admitted bitterly. "I'm perfectly fine. Feels wrong to come out of it so perfectly fine when Will's in an emergency room in surgery."

Ethan smiled again, but his smile was sad this time. "Welcome to our world." He said quietly.

Tony had no response for it, and he folded his arms, staring hard at the floor. "Clint said something about… eidetic memory. And that Will was highly wanted for it." Ethan nodded. "And uh… that Natasha was part of some bodyguard thing for him, too." Tony hated sounding so unintelligent, but before he could actually piece every part of this puzzle together, he was just going to have to stutter through it until he got all the pieces.

Ethan nodded. "My parents were part of the IMF, and Natasha's parents are from SHIELD."

"I'm not going to get any matches on what I actually need if I Google those, huh?" Tony laughed uneasily.

Ethan chuckled. "The Impossible Mission Force, and Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division." Tony's brain scrambled to keep up with the full version of the acronyms. "My parents were the ones assigned to Will and Clint first, to protect them. Will's eidetic memory came to view when he was still at the orphanage. Fortunately the American government got to him first, and assigned him bodyguards – my parents and Natasha's parents – before anyone else could get to him. But genuine, complete eidetic memory, especially for someone as intelligent as Will, makes the carrier an incredible asset for any country."

Tony nodded. That part he knew. Most people with eidetic memory were Autistic Savants, and even those eidetic memory were limited to mostly sight. But according to what Ethan and Clint were telling him, and what he himself had witnessed in class, Will's eidetic memory was complete. He could remember everything about an event, from what he had seen and what he had heard to what he smelled and felt.

Ethan was watching the red lights on top of the doors. "On top of it, Will's IQ is quite incredible, and he has no problem filing away an event in his head, and then pulling it up in about a tenth of a second when he needs it later. He's like an organic supercomputer. Actually, he was tested against one of the fastest supercomputers in terms of a complex word string search, and he was faster. He's very, very, valuable. On top of that, on a particular kidnapping, we discovered Clint's own talent. He's an incredible sharpshooter. He will _never_ miss. With any sort of weapon. Not only that, he's a natural athlete, as you've probably noticed already. Needless to say, he and Will would make quite a golden pair for any organization to have. Especially terrorist organizations."

Tony didn't question why especially terrorist organizations. He didn't really want to know. "So you work for IMF and Natasha for… SHIELD?" A nod. "How come you actually go away to places? Isn't your job to protect Will?"

Ethan shook his head. "No. It's my primary job, but I take on missions like every other agent does. You've met Jane, right? She and Benji are on my team. We do short missions because our main effort is to keep something like today from happening, but…" Ethan sighed. "Sometimes those short times are all anyone needs to disable all the traps and alarms at our house. It didn't help that Will was sick to begin with." He reached over and gripped Tony's shoulder. "I'm going to give you an advice, Tony, and then I'm going to give you my honest opinion. My advice is that you and your friends stay clear of Will and Clint. You, especially, don't need another dangerous connection. Your money already makes you a target for likely kidnapping, and you don't need the association to Clint and Will."

Tony didn't break their gaze. "And your honest opinion?"

Ethan sighed. "I'm not supposed to be doing this, putting you kids into danger." Tony didn't point out that at 20, Ethan wasn't exactly old, either. After a long pause, Ethan spoke up. "My honest wishes are that you'd stay with Clint and Will." He spoke softly. "I have good judge of character – it sort of comes with my job – and… well, I won't say anything too brash as of yet. But all of you would be good for Will and Clint. But I want the four of you to get together. You, Thor, Steve, and Bruce, and actually talk about it. Consider what happened today. Consider that this was one of the worst planned kidnappings Will has ever had, and consider what kind of danger you may be putting yourselves through if you stick around."

Tony nodded, already knowing his answer. And if he knew his friends as well as he thought he knew them, he knew their answer, as well. Maybe if something like this happened when they'd first met, three months ago, they would have backed away. Maybe. But now, when bonds had been formed and ties had been tied, he was well aware no one was going to break it. "Can I do that later? Can I wait until Will gets out of surgery, maybe see him for a bit and then…"

"Yeah." Ethan smiled, laughing tiredly. "Yes, you do that. Will would want to see you, anyway." He looked back up at the light, and as if on cue it clicked off. The wondering if Ethan had psychic powers came back. "He'll probably be under for an hour or two, though. Let's see what the doctor has to say, and then go get some food for you and Clint."

The doctor had no bad news for them. The knife was long and had almost cut straight to the back, but it had missed the ribs and all vital organs. But that was expected, Ethan had said. They don't want Will dead, just maybe not mobile. His wrists and ankles were badly chafed, but thankfully there were no infections and they would heal quickly. They'd given him an injection to keep his blood sugar level steady, and were keeping an oxygen mask on him in case his allergic asthma kicked in due to panic, but otherwise he was fine and he was already healing.

Ethan drove again, and Tony said nothing as they pulled into the lone restaurant with a gas station. Tony filled up the gas while Ethan ducked into the diner after Tony confessed he honestly didn't care what he was eating, as long as he was eating something. Now that the adrenaline had completely gone away, he realized he was hungrier than anything.

And that he had about a billion and a half calls. Only three were from Natasha, and he guessed that Natasha had contacted Ethan after she realized Clint was gone as well. He checked the time - it was past 5, and the sun was starting to dim. It wasn't late at all, but he was exhausted. He wondered briefly how the others had gotten home, and dialed Steve first.

Steve picked up before the first dial tone could go through. [Natasha told us.] Steve said, his voice carrying a million emotions. [How are Clint and Will? And you?]

Tony didn't even care Steve had added him as an afterthought. "Okay. Clint and I are completely unharmed. Will got a knife through his stomach, but it didn't hit any vital organs and the hospital said he can be discharged in a week, but he'd just have to be careful."

[Can we go see him, too?]

"No, uh…" He looked around. He had no idea where he was. He didn't know how much Natasha had told the others, and he didn't know what he was allowed to say. "I have no idea where we are."

Steve chuckled worriedly over the phone. [She told us everything.] He said softly. [Clint's aim, Will's memory. Everything.]

Tony breathed a sigh of relief. That meant he didn't have to skirt around his best friends with lies. "I still don't know where the hell I am." He confessed, and Steve laughed. "Steve, Ethan… he wanted the four of us to talk about it." He glanced over and saw Ethan still in the diner.

[Natasha said the same thing. Thor got really offended that she'd even say something like that.] Steve laughed uneasily again. [We're all in. I don't know why. Something tells me this is incredibly dangerous and all, but I still have no idea. They're a part of us, aren't they?]

Tony laughed, relief spreading all the way through him. "Yeah. Yeah, they are. But I think we should still talk. About everything. Not just the four of us. But Clint and Will and Natasha, too. Just everyone. Maybe we should spend winter break at the house at the ski resort I have. Wait, would that like not be allowed for Clint and Will?"

"No, that's fine for Clint and Will as long as Natasha's there." A voice said behind him, and Tony jumped about a mile. Ethan looked amused. "Agents will be everywhere throughout the ski resort, but yes, that's allowed. Clint and Will have lives, too, and we respect it. In fact, restraining it would probably be worse."

Steve, having heard over the phone, laughed. [Should invite Ethan, too. We'll talk when you get back, yeah? Call Bruce and Thor, they're worried like no other, too. And keep us posted on how Will's doing.] Tony dialed Thor as he slid into the car, and was awarded with a bunch of yelling on Thor's part before Thor actually got to the part to ask if Will and Clint were okay. When he was done being yelled to deafness by Thor, he called Bruce, who was the opposite of Thor. Bruce wasn't surprised at all that Will had eidetic memory, but was more surprised by the fact that Tony hadn't picked up on it.

[I mean, he remembered everything in every lecture perfectly. It didn't set off a bell?] Tony could almost see Bruce rolling his eyes. [You were too busy trying to woo Clint.]

A panicked look at Ethan told Tony that Ethan had heard exactly what Bruce had said. "I did _not_. I just thought Will was a genius, that's all."

[Whatever you say, Tony. I'll see you in school tomorrow.]

Tony was greeted with heavy silence after he hung up. Ethan seemed to find the entire thing amusing, by the look on his face, but when he finally spoke up it was slightly cautious. "It's not a good idea, Tony. To date Clint." His voice was neither a warning nor an invitation. It was merely a statement, so Tony let it hang there. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to date Clint. He was attracted, of course, but just about the entire school was attracted to one of the twins. It didn't matter if they were girls or guys – it seemed like everyone in the school wanted to have the twins in their bed.

But did he like Clint enough to try a relationship with him? The last time Tony had hazarded on a relationship, it had ended up with Pepper moving to another state. Sure, Pepper had already been planning to move to Boston, but their bad breakup had ended up sending her across the country to Los Angeles, and he'd lost one of his close friends.

If he dated Clint, and then if they ended up badly, he'd lose not just Clint, but Will, and also probably Natasha. Though he would never admit it out loud, ever, he was scared. He didn't like losing close friends.

This was, of course, assuming that Clint _would_ date him if he asked. He could probably convince Clint to try it out, and he was positive the Clint-trademark crooked grins, when directed at him, turned a little warmer and softer. He was only so sure of this fact not only because Natasha jabbed his ribs every time with a smirk Clint did it, but also because Will would get this thoughtful look on his face. And those reactions had to mean _something_.

Ethan said nothing else about the issue, so Tony stayed quiet, hugging the diner food so it wouldn't fall off. It felt pleasantly warm on his stomach, and he realized he was hungry more than anything else at the moment. Ethan led them to a room on the third floor, where Clint was occupying a slightly-larger-than-normal hospital bed, holding Will to him, stroking his hair and staring into space. Will was a little pale, but the only things attached to him were an IV tube and a pulse and blood pressure monitor. He had bandages on his ankles and wrists and Tony was going to hazard a guess and say that there were more around his abdomen. The monitors showed a little lower blood pressure than normal, but his pulse was strong and steady. Clint must have thought his opinion higher than the doctor's, because the oxygen mask was lying uselessly on the bed next to them.

When Tony and Ethan entered, Clint smiled, and that was the one thing Tony needed to know Will was going to be all right. There was probably something wrong with the fact that a smile could reassure more than a professional's opinion, but Tony ignored it. "I'm hungry." Clint announced, looking at the bag in Tony's hands. "What did you guys get?"

"Chicken." Ethan answered. "Come on, Tony, sit. Let's eat." Ethan pulled a bedside stand over and spread their food on it. Clint managed to dig through his food without untangling his arm from Will, and Tony didn't really register how it tasted as he wolfed it down, but did note that his taste buds weren't exactly screaming in pain. Ethan watched the two of them, eating slowly as he monitored not only their eating but Will's steady heartbeat on the monitor.

When they were done, Ethan volunteered to take the trash out, because, as Clint pointed out, if the nurses found diner food in the hospital room, they'd throw a fit. Tony had a feeling it had more to do with Ethan giving Tony room to talk about what'd happened with Clint. And he wasn't going to pass it up. "Do I get more answers?" He asked, just in case Clint wanted to put it off.

Clint looked surprised, but not annoyed. "Ethan didn't give you everything?"

"I mean… he did. But I want to ask you things, too." Clint nodded. "Did you have… training? To be able to move like a specially trained agent." Clint nodded. "Can we get it, too? Me and Steve and Thor and Bruce."

Clint looked slightly amused. "Sure, but I don't know if Bruce would like it." He looked back to Will. "You guys are going to stay?" His voice sounded hopeful, but cautious. He wanted them to stay, Tony realized, but hadn't been depending on it. "Today was one of the best cases, you know. Benji and Jane happened to be nearby so they pretty much had everything under control." His face darkened. "There are times when Will and I have gotten kidnapped for weeks. Times when we found Will on the brink of getting raped."

It was Tony's turn to be surprised. It was a bad thing to assume, of course, but he'd assumed that with all the kidnappings Will had, and with Will being quite attractive on top of it, rape had already been done. Noticing Tony's surprise, Clint snickered lightly. "Will's a virgin. No need to worry about him having been raped or something."

"Wait, virgin?" Tony was aware the conversation was _not_ going where he had intended, but he wasn't one to leave curiosities unanswered. "But he and Ethan…"

Clint shrugged. "I think Ethan wants to wait until.. you know, Will's not a minor anymore. I think as of right now it's sort of illegal. Will has to be 18." Noticing the look on Tony's face again, Clint smiled. "Ethan's waited for a long time. Plus, I think it's more that Will's not really, you know, ready yet, more than the age thing, because Ethan doesn't give two shits about law. But we're not actually going to go into my brother's sex life, right?'

Tony laughed. "Right. Right. Wait, are… I mean, people have to have mistaken you for Will, right? Have you been…"

"Kidnapped in Will's place, yeah. Raped, no. Almost, once, but it pissed me off enough that they thought I was Will and trying to rape me that I managed to kick all of them in the balls before Ethan actually shot them all." Clint snorted. Tony couldn't help but shake his head, trying to imagine a pissed off Clint. It wasn't too difficult.

"Your aim…"

"That's natural." Clint cut him off with a crooked grin. "I shoot better than Ethan, or anyone else in IMF and SHIELD combined." He took out his pistol from under his thigh – Tony noticed the safety was back on – and swung it around his finger once. "No training is going to get you there." He smirked cockily (and _god_ it was attractive) and then put the firearm back on the table. He looked like he was about to say more, but paused, and then smiled. "Hey." He said gently, downward.

"I smell food," answered a voice that was identical to Clint's. "I'm hungry." A blue-gray-green eye cracked open and smiled at Tony. "Hey, it's Tony." Tony felt worry flood his insides, but quelled it only because Clint was smiling and looked relaxed and kept pressing kisses all over Will's face. So he managed to smile and grip his hand. Will squeezed back and gave him a small smile. "Where's Ethan? I'm hungry. You had Maggie's again, didn't you? I want some."

"Ethan went out to take out the trash. He said he was also going to pick up some liquids for you to down when you wake up." Clint pressed another kiss to Will's temple. "And you're funny if you're serious about eating diner food. You're not going to be eating anything solid for the next two weeks."

Will made a face. "Those weird soup things they make at the cafeteria downstairs are disgusting."

"It's not _my_ fault someone got stabbed in the gut, yeah?" Clint was smiling softly, still showering his twin with kisses until Ethan walked in through the door. "Hey, look. Ethan has those disgusting things you were just talking about."

Ethan looked pleasantly surprised. He bent down, quickly brushed his lips against Will's, and sat next to Tony. "Clint, stop marking your territory. You're either disturbing Tony or arousing him. And Will, it's _good_ for you. So here." He handed Clint a pack of some kind of goo that was a disturbing brownish color. Ethan noticed the look on Tony's face and laughed. "Want to try it? It's actually not as bad as it looks. Some of us have to live on it when we're on missions."

"Don't believe him, Tony." Will quipped, wincing as Clint tore the top of the package for him instead. "This thing is downright vile and disgusting." He tried to squirm away from Clint but Clint held him in a vice grip and he sighed. He swallowed it but his face scrunched more with each gulp, and when he was done Ethan pressed a cup of water to him. "Ugh." He made a face, and snuggled into Clint's side.

Tony wondered for a moment if it was a normal thing for Will. He seemed perfectly fine for someone who'd gotten kidnapped, stuffed into a suitcase with an oxygen tank and had a knife buried right under his ribs. Will fell soundly asleep after bit of silence fell over them, and Clint held him tightly. He nodded once to Tony and once to Ethan and made himself comfortable, curling around his twin's body before his breath evened out.

Ethan stood and beckoned Tony out. Tony obeyed without a fuss, embedding the picture to his mind before he walked quietly with Ethan to his car. "Benji's got surveillance on them." Ethan said, once he strapped himself into the driver's seat. "Jane is also watching, and the hospital's heavily armed. They'll be fine." He glanced over at Tony as he started to drive. "Will and Clint need to be left alone. That's how Will copes, you know. Clint being overly affectionate is just to calm Will down. Physical contact calms their nerves." Tony nodded, remembering how the twins were pressed tightly to each other without a space in between.

Tony stared out into the dark night ahead of them. They were the only car on the road, but Tony realized he wasn't at all unnerved. He was in the car with a man who had beat up about ten armed men with his bare hands and came out of it completely unscratched. He was currently probably one of the safest people in the world. "You're Will's lover, aren't you? Shouldn't you be doing some of the comforting?"

Ethan laughed as if Tony was being naïve. "Tony, I'll tell you now because tonight has told me a lot of things about you." He paused. "If you do end up dating Clint, you need to always consider two things. The first thing is that no matter who Clint or Will date, their number one person will always, _always_ be the other twin. No matter what. I can't do anything for Will right now except maybe squeeze his hand, or give him a kiss. He needs Clint, and in the same way Clint needs to be there for Will. The second thing is that…" He smiled as if he was the happiest man on earth, and Tony flinched. "The second thing is that when you fall in love with one of them, Tony, you fall in love with both of them." Ethan glanced over at Tony and smiled as if he knew something Tony didn't. "Maybe you'll find out what I mean, Tony. Maybe. But still, you really do have to think about it thoroughly."

Ethan drove Tony to his house – Tony didn't ask how Ethan knew his address. The man probably had files thick enough to be encyclopedias on not just Tony but also Thor and Bruce and Steve. Tony told Ethan he could borrow the car, but Ethan refused. Ethan waited until Tony was inside the house, and when Tony turned he saw a black car drive up to pick Ethan up. Right. Tony snorted, sleepily walking inside. Jarvis didn't ask any questions as to why Tony was home at 3:12 in the morning, and when Tony mumbled that he wasn't going to go to school tomorrow, offered to pick up his friends. "Yeah. Do that. But not Clint and Will."

He collapsed into bed and didn't wake up until well past noon the next day to another billion and a half missed calls and texts. "Hey, Jarvis." He called, and the butler was almost immediately at his door. "Can you pick my friends up in the afternoon, too? And bring them here. Never mind, have Happy do it. Can you make food for us or something? Get Poptarts for Thor."

He fell back asleep after that. He didn't wake up again until a weight stepped on his knees. "Ow!" He tried to lash out, but Natasha was tumbling off before he could. Right. Secret agent. "Don't you have better ways of waking me up?"

"I'll give you a choice. I can step on you, or I can put a bullet through your shin." Natasha smiled dangerously, and he didn't doubt she was serious. "Now go brush your teeth and wash your face. You look ugly."

Those three words were enough to send Tony running to the bathroom with Bruce laughing quietly behind him. He spent about ten minutes in the bathroom and came back to find food on the table in the middle of the room, Thor munching away at Poptarts and Natasha and Bruce fighting over the tomatoes in a salad. Steve was the only one not eating, and he was staring expectantly at Tony, so Tony came down and chose the seat next to Thor and took a Poptart. "Will's okay. Clint and he had a make out session when he woke up." Natasha smiled knowingly and snatched a tomato Bruce had been reaching for. "But he's okay." He looked at Natasha. "I can't believe it happens so often that when Will woke up, he was just all like, 'Hey, I got a hole in my abdomen but who cares? My biggest problem is that I can't eat the chicken you got from the only restaurant for about 50 miles.'"

Natasha sighed and let Bruce take the tomato they'd been battling over. "Yeah… From what Ethan told me, this is nothing. There was once when both of them got kidnapped to some obscure African country and Clint was left to die of starvation and thirst in the Saharan desert, and then they water-tortured Will for days._ That_ really was the worst." Her voice was dark with emotion as she said it.

Even Thor stopped chomping down on his Poptarts. "Water torture?" He sounded queasy.

"Yeah. Uh… you guys don't really want to know about this." When the four stared at her, she made a face but continued. "I don't really know the theory behind it, but the liquid is like oxygenated or something so you don't really drown. It's a form of interrogation people use, because when you come out of it you will do _anything_ to not go back in. They did it to Will at least five times over the course of three days, where he was submerged for more than 12 hours at a time. The only reason Clint survived the desert was because of the pain he had through Will." She laughed humorlessly, one of her fists clenched tightly on the table. "They sort of canceled each other out, the heat and the lack of water with the cold and too much water. We found Clint first and then found Will. Ethan shot everyone dead. They sometimes have nightmares about the entire ordeal."

Steve's voice was shaky when he spoke up. "You're making it up." He accused. "So we'd leave."

Natasha stared harshly. "No. I wish I was making it up, but I'm not. It's what happens. If we're lucky they go through one kidnapping a year. If we're unlucky, Will's swept up the moment he gets back home."

"But they don't capture _you_ or _Ethan_, do they?" Bruce pointed out quietly. "Why would they target us?"

Natasha crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Because Ethan and I are _agents_. We're worth more trouble than the benefits they'd get. Ethan and I would break free and knock them all unconscious or dead before they can threaten Clint or Will to do something. It's happened. Five times. And then people realized how dumb it was and stopped." She sighed impatiently. "Maybe they wouldn't bother with Steve or Thor, because the two of you are big guys. But Bruce and Tony, well… No offense guys, but you guys are muscular and all but you two don't exactly look threatening. AND Tony has rich parents, which is just an added incentive." She looked around at all of them. "I care about you guys." She said slowly, as if admitting it was painful. "I don't want you getting hurt, either."

Tony snorted. "Sorry, Romanoff, but we're staying. Or at least, I'm staying."

"Me too." Bruce added quietly. "Will and Clint are our friends too."

Steve nodded, and Thor followed, looking offended that Natasha would even suggest they'd leave. Tony saw a smile forming behind her hand as she reached for the last tomato that Bruce had left.

The next day, Natasha gave each of them a small handgun. She'd told them to use it "just for defense," as if they'd shoot at each other for fun. The four of them also found themselves in self-defense classes every day after school, taught by Natasha herself and sometimes Ethan. Ethan looked both amused and unsure about their efforts, but soon Steve and Thor and Tony picked up easily on all their moves for Ethan to be satisfied enough.

After about a week of being hospitalized, Will was allowed to come to school again, just not participate in any rough physical activities. Clint helped the others in their self-defense class, and Ethan mildly noted that it was turning more into a fighting class than an actual self-defense class. But Natasha replied that the best form of defense was offense, and Ethan hummed in agreement.

So Will would watch, amused, from the sidelines, and Natasha and Clint beat everyone up. Sometimes Will would rub absentmindedly at the wound that was still healing, and Clint would pause in his assault of Tony or Thor to slide over to Will, usually leaving his opponent confused to what had just happened.

Once, Tony had managed to snap to his senses quickly enough to grab Clint before he slid out of his grasp. That had ended up in a reflex reaction from Clint and Tony found himself face-up on the mat, the air out of his lungs and Clint apologizing. "Sorry, Tony." Clint blushed, his cheeks red and his eyes clearly abashed. It was the first time Tony had seen Clint blush. "Sorry, that was just reflex."

"Yeah, Tony." Natasha was snickering. "Don't get in Clint's way when he's trying to get to Will, next time. But that's good, your reflex is getting faster." She easily blocked a hit from Steve and had him on the mat in the next second. "Reminds me of when you grabbed Will the first day." She whispered as she swept past him, reaching down to help Steve up.

Tony remembered that too, and remembered Natasha's complement back then. Things had changed so, so much since back then. Back then when they didn't know that Will and Clint pretty much made out on a regular basis, back when they didn't know about Will's eidetic memory. Tony sighed and crawled over to where Will was pressed against Clint's side, his head resting on Clint's shoulder. He didn't even care about how he looked, and rested his head on Clint's shoulder that Will wasn't using. Clint chuckled softly but didn't push him away, so Tony closed his eyes.

He felt Bruce come over and use his thigh as a pillow to stretch out, and cracked his eyes open to see Natasha doing the same thing to Will. Thor settled himself next to Clint, throwing an arm over Clint's shoulders and pulling Natasha's legs over his own. Steve mirrored the move on Tony's side. And that was how Ethan found them, an hour later, sleeping contently tangled up in one another. He didn't wake them until he took a picture and sent it to all their phones.

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The chapters keep getting longer... orz... Oh, and if you don't mind a little bit of LokiHawk, I have a new one-shot called "My Little Hawk" that you can check out :D


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: I don't own the Avengers or Mission Impossible characters. Jeremy Renner is my ultimate bias currently, so I thought, well, why not bring them together and make them twins who can't live with each other? Categorized under Avengers because it's AU either way, and the fic is going to be in Tony's 3rd person limited narrative, anyway.

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Tangle of Red: Chapter 5

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Training continued even after Ethan felt comfortable letting Tony drive Clint and Will every morning. Natasha informed them quietly that they'd obviously gotten on SHIELD's radar, and then the next day Bruce and Tony were invited to a quiet dinner to some secret government facility where labs with equipment that Tony had never imagined greeted them. The day after that, Steve and Thor got invited to SHIELD and came back with huge grins and exuding testosterone. Apparently SHIELD had gotten some of its rookie agents to spar with them and they'd pretty much burned them to the ground, causing SHIELD to offer the two of them jobs as SHIELD agents once they graduated from school.

Needless to say, Thor and Steve were quite excited when they found out SHIELD would also pay for whatever college they chose to go and that they could pretty much go wherever they wanted, if the recruitment invitation was accepted. "But Ethan's not SHIELD, right?" Steve looked up from the files he and Thor were reading. "What are you two going to do?"

Clint shrugged. "I'm going to go into SHIELD. I sort of owe them for making my bow and those cool arrows."

Thor looked up. "Bows and arrows?"

Clint snickered. "Yeah. My choice of weapon." He looked proud, and Will patted his thigh. "I'll show you guys later, maybe. At the least, I can show you guys how well I shoot with a bow and arrow."

Steve must have decided he was going to pursue the subject, because he forced the conversation to Will. "And you?"

Will blushed and it was Clint who answered instead. "Will's got it made. He has about ten thousand jobs being offered to him like every year, government and private, each one offering more money." He snickered and turned to his twin to nuzzle his cheek. Will smiled softly. "I think he should go with Ethan to IMF."

Will shrugged. "The plan right now is to be an analyst for both SHIELD and IMF." He confessed. "I'd like to be out on the field with Clint, but…" He blushed softly again. "My stamina doesn't really allow that. The least I can do is being in the background helping Clint and Ethan and Tasha."

Natasha snickered. "Yeah, so they don't have to be separate, ever."

Will smiled. "Well, it's true. And if Steve and Thor are seriously considering joining SHIELD, it's more of a reason for me to work for both agencies. Plus, Bruce is going to be with me on base, if I'm there."

Tony's eyes widened and he swerved to face Bruce. "You've already decided to join?"

Bruce shrugged, looking up from the books he was reading. "It's not 100, but I'm leaning heavily toward it. Sure, it's a government job so it doesn't pay as much as working for a private firm, but the pay is still pretty high. I don't need that much money. Plus, they do a lot of very interesting things. You saw the types of equipment they had back at the labs in their base. I asked and it's not available anywhere else. And as Will said, we can keep each other company if we get bored while you guys are taking out bad guys." He shrugged again and closed his book, carefully marking the page he was on.

Tony laughed. "So we'll all be together even after school?" This earned him surprised glances. "What? You guys thought I wouldn't be there, either? Bruce is completely right. That lab was insanely cool. And did you see all that stuff? The things they were doing? I'd be _legally_ able to hack everything! I mean, yeah, the thrill of it will be less, but I can hack everything! _Everything_."

Bruce chuckled and leaned back. Steve rolled his eyes but looked amused. "I figured." Bruce supplied quietly, smiling as he reopened his book.

Tony leaned back, grinning broadly as he looked around his room. Natasha had all but taken over his bed, reading through his comic books. Clint, Thor, Steve and Will were sitting on the floor around a large desk, Will helping each one on their math homework. Bruce was occupying a chair near Tony's worktable, the table behind him running a rather slow distillation sequence that Bruce had read about somewhere in his books of his and wanted to try out. He didn't even try to stop the grin that spread on his face. He really did love all of his friends. Even Natasha, who informed him that he was doing "the creepy smiling thing again."

No one attempted to kidnap either Clint or Will in the few weeks following that, and Thor expressed his relief at Winter Vacation by pelting snowballs hard enough to bruise everyone at the end of the day. Natasha slid into the shotgun seat as she always did, resulting in complaints from Steve and Thor, and Bruce quickly claimed a trunk seat as Steve grudgingly climbed in after him. "So what's the plan tomorrow?" Steve called from the back seat.

"Ethan's driving us and Tasha. That way we'll have two cars and room for gear. " Will smiled excitedly. "It's been a really long time since I boarded." The smile on his lips was contagious, and Tony found himself grinning like an idiot as he drove. Natasha jabbed him in the side.

Tony flashed a grin. "Don't poke the driver while he's driving." He glanced at Steve through the rearview mirror. "I can pick you up at 7:45, and then Bruce and then Thor. We can all meet up at Clint's and Will's at 8 and leave together, even if it's two different cars."

"Sounds good." Clint nodded, and then smiled as he pinched Will's cheeks. "Think you can wake up by then?"

Will rolled his eyes. "I'll just sleep in the car if anything."

Clint winked at Tony as Tony pulled into their curb. Will slid out, waving, and Natasha was already out and crossing the street to her house. Just before Clint left, he reached over and lightly squeezed Tony's elbow. Will's eyes were amused as Clint came back to join him, and Tony's elbow seemed like it was on fire. Steve was busy climbing out to get into the shotgun seat, and Thor and Bruce were busy talking about some Chemistry problem. Either that or they'd seen and chose to ignore it.

But he could only half-pay attention to Steve as he talked. His attention was almost completely on the elbow that was still burning. He didn't even know how he'd managed to drop Thor then Bruce then Steve at their correct addresses and didn't know how he'd gotten back home without slamming into a garbage can or something. "Well, this is just peachy." He grumbled, staring at his reflection.

There was _definitely_ something there. Elbow-touching was something almost exclusive between Will and Clint. And the reason why it was "almost" was because Will had cupped his elbow once, and that once had been enough to send delightful shivers down his spine. And now it was Clint doing it, and Tony could feel the touch as if Clint was still there, hanging onto his elbow.

Which was, of course, not the case, and it made Tony feel a little dumb. Tony wasn't used to the feeling. Not being in completely control of everything he was doing unnerved him, and knowing that his usual charm wasn't going to get him anywhere made him even more frustrated. He rubbed his face with his hands, groaning in frustration. He hated the feeling, hated that he couldn't do anything about it, and hated that he had no idea what he _could_ do. Well, he thought as he got up off the chair. He _could_ start packing, he supposed.

He woke up at 7 the next day, showered, ate cereal instead of the usual breakfast feast he had on Saturdays, and started to drive. Steve slid into the shotgun seat, complaining how he hadn't had it for long. Tony reminded him Steve had it yesterday, at least for about 5 minutes.

Bruce climbed into the car and Tony had a suspicion his bag had more books than actual boarding gear, but left it off. Will would probably not be spending too much time on the slopes either, so Bruce would at least have company when he decided to stay at the bottom of the slopes snuggled up with a book.

Thor clambered in last, shoving his board and boots over all of theirs, and contently stretched out. Bruce lifted the book on his lap so Thor could use his lap as a pillow, and then used the side of Thor's head as a book rest. Thor started to snore in three seconds, tugging a smile on Tony's lips. It was something he was used to, something he loved seeing, something he was comfortable in.

They pulled up into the twins' house in time to see Ethan carry Will out on his back and then slide him into the back seats. Clint waved when he saw them and Tony felt his elbow burn again when Clint grinned at him. A rapid rap on Steve's side of the car revealed Natasha. "My goggles are in your trunk." She said crossly. "I looked for them for about three hours yesterday before I remembered." She handed them three containers and a box of Poptarts.

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "The drive is barely over two hours, Natasha. This is a lot of food, isn't it?"

"Yeah, tell that to Thor when he wakes up." Natasha snickered, and then looked up when Ethan called. "You drive first. Ethan says he has a general idea of where he's going, but you should still lead."

Tony nodded. "Got it." He waited to turn the engine back on once Natasha had slid into Ethan's SUV. "The dude has many cars as I do." He whistled appreciatively.

Steve snorted. "Tony, no one has as many cars as you do. Should I open the box? Will probably made these, right?" Tony nodded and he glanced over when Steve opened the first container. "Thor will probably murder us if he finds out we ate without him." All the same, Tony popped a California roll into his mouth. It tasted better than the ones his chef made and Tony wondered if Will would consider a career as a professional chef. He'd make the world a tastier place, at the very least.

They'd only gotten through about half the first container when Thor shot up. It was only because Bruce was used to Thor that he managed to move his book and hands before they shot up to hit him in the face. "You dined without me!" Thor cried out, looking scandalized.

Bruce rolled his eyes, Tony laughed and Steve offered him the box of Poptarts first. Thor favored the rolls in the container over the Poptarts, which was definitely a first. True to Natasha's prediction, all three containers of Will-made food were empty long before Tony pulled into the parking lot of his private winter house right next to the slopes. Thor stuffed the last Poptart wrapper into the box as the BMW pulled up next to Tony.

A peek inside the car told Tony that Will was asleep, and probably had been for the entire ride. Clint bent down to kiss Will's nose and then his lips, and Will stirred awake, blinking sleepily before a gentle smile spread on his lips. Sleeping beauty if I ever saw one, Tony thought lightly, pulling his jacket on before opening the door. Natasha stepped out, looking perfect as ever even in a large padded jumper. Ethan nodded appreciatively at the large cabin and tapped on the window again. Will exited, rubbing his eyes sleepily. He greeted the rest of them with a sleepy grin, and Thor slapped him heartily in the back. "I enjoyed the food!"

Will smiled and peeked into the back seat. "We have some left." He reached out for it and Clint handed to him as he exited the car himself. "Here." Tony noted with some sort of fondness that Will had stopped asking if Thor wanted more food and had learned to just give it to him. Clint and Will had now learned all their habits, and it made Tony's insides warm up.

"Are we boarding right now?" Natasha stretched like a cat, sighing in satisfaction when her muscles flexed. "We should just snuggle into fluffy pillows and warm sheets and cocoa."

"Are you getting cold?" Steve teased lightly. "You're Russian."

Natasha hmphed. "I'm not getting cold. I just like fluffy things." She marched up the steps to the cabin. It opened when she punched the code into it and read her handprint. Steve followed, chuckling and shaking his head lightly. Will and Bruce were talking about the books in Bruce's bag, and Tony wasn't surprised to see that Will himself was carrying a backpack that looked suspiciously like it held books.

In the end Natasha won, which she always did, but Ethan supported her by pointing out that they were going to be at the slopes for the week, and therefore didn't actually need to ski every moment of the day. So Tony was on his laptop, programming his newest addition to the mansion – a shooting range. He glanced up at Bruce and Will and Clint. Clint was snuggled into Will's side as Will and Bruce talked about something he couldn't quite overhear. Natasha, Ethan, Steve and Thor had gone off into the rec room to go against each other two-on-two. The sparring was coming through the feed on the flat screen on the wall, and once in a while Will would glance up, smile softly and duck back to his conversation with Bruce.

They'd teamed up Natasha and Thor against Ethan and Steve, and it was, Tony had to admit, quite something to watch. Natasha moved around them like she had no bones, flexible to the highest degree. Thor and Steve were mostly about sheer power, and Ethan was a just-right mixture of both. Tony would not want to be caught in the fight.

Clint was also watching the battle, making comments like, "oof, that one must've hurt," or "whoa, good hit," and sometimes "Thor's really big, man, look at him," and "Steve's getting really good, huh?" He whistled lowly when Thor crept low and threw his leg out, catching Steve in the shins and knocking him on his back. A second later Ethan gripped Natasha's arms and held her in a deadlock until she sighed and raised her hands in surrender.

Steve looked winded but laughed as he and Natasha got out of the way, and Thor and Ethan cautiously circled one another. Will's conversation with Bruce paused and he looked up, looking half worried and half confident. "Who do you think will win?" Tony heard Bruce wonder.

"Ethan." Clint and Will quipped up at the same time. They shared a quick glance and a smile. "Thor's big and very agile for someone his size, and he's been getting very, very good, but Ethan's got an upper hand over him by about 15 years." Clint explained, glancing up at Bruce. "But my bet is Ethan's going to end up with a few big bruises."

Thor lunged first, but Ethan quickly maneuvered himself away and gripped Thor's wrist to twist behind his back. Thor managed to force his way out of the grip and lunged forward again. When Ethan tried to sidestep him again, Thor caught him with his other arm and he stumbled backward. Will sighed and got up, squeezing Clint's hand lightly and nodding at Bruce. He slipped out and Tony forced his attention back to the fight.

Just in time to see Ethan grip Thor by the waist, swing him around like he weighed nothing, and then let him fall gently to the ground. Thor looked surprised, as if he didn't know what hit him, but Ethan smiled and held his hand out. Thor laughed good-naturedly, like he always did, and accepted the hand up.

Soon after, Will appeared in the doorway of the rec room, holding four bags of something. He tossed two to Natasha, who caught both with ease and handed one to Steve. Thor was handed one, and then Ethan was forced to sit and Will pulled Ethan's shirt up and started pressing the bag to his side. "Ice." Clint explained. "So they're not sore before they even start boarding."

Bruce looked amazed. "Ethan really is amazing, isn't he? He threw Thor around like he was made of paper."

Clint snorted. "That's nothing. Ethan once scaled Burj Khalifa on the 150th floor with an unconscious Will in one arm." He reached for the bowl of popcorn on the table, and when Tony and Bruce said nothing, he looked up to find them staring at him. "I'm serious. The kidnappers sort of hung Will out from the… uh… 163rd? The top residential floor, whatever it is. Ethan climbed up from the 150th floor, got Will and climbed back down to the 150th floor. I thought I was going to have a heart attack watching him."

Tony stared and then sighed when Clint when back to munching on popcorn. "You're actually serious." He said weakly. Clint nodded, raising an eyebrow. "How is Ethan alive?"

"Well, cause he needs to take care of Will and me." Clint said, matter-of-factly. "Serious about that, too." He added as an afterthought, grinning. He looked up when Natasha walked into the room and Steve limped in behind her. Steve groaned as he settled himself next to Bruce, dropping the bag of ice on his shins. "You okay?" Clint leaned over, concerned. "Thor kicked you pretty good."

"Yeah, but Ethan and Natasha said I should be fine tomorrow." He winced as he rubbed his left shin.

Thor and Ethan came in, followed by Will, worriedly holding two bags of ice. Thor's arm was around Ethan's shoulders and Ethan let him down on the couch next to Natasha. "Sorry." Ethan apologized, taking the bag Will handed him and holding it to Thor's shoulder. "I was trying to hold back, but you sort of came on strong and I acted without thinking."

Thor laughed and waved it off. "I am perfectly well. You do not have to hold back for my sake. I would like to get stronger." He moved and the ice slid off his shoulder.

"Keep the ice there, Thor." Will reached over and pressed the ice back up to the bruise that was already forming. "I'll get you a new bag when it melts." Thor hummed lightly and nodded as his eyes fluttered shut. Soon he was snoring, and Will smiled gently. He fished the cushions from the other pillows to make Thor comfortable, and then settled next to Bruce again, letting Clint take over his side again.

Natasha curled up in her sofa and then Steve nodded off, making Bruce reach up to keep his head from crashing down onto the table. Tony helped Bruce lay Steve out on the floor, pushing a cushion under his head and spreading a thin sheet over him. "Ice." Will said quietly over the table, frowning at Ethan. "Will you please behave and keep it there?" He sounded exasperated and reached over, grabbing the ice bag Ethan had discarded in the process to push it back to him. "Tony, your tables are too big." He said crossly when he realized he couldn't quite reach Ethan with Clint hanging off his side.

Ethan grinned and stuck his tongue out at Will, and it reminded Tony painfully of how young Ethan actually was. Sure, he was four years older than they were, but at 20 he wasn't even legal. Taking Will and Clint in had probably affected Ethan the most – he'd lost his parents, and then forced to grow up too early for two kids that were pretty much strangers.

But somehow Ethan had outgrown whatever he must have felt and had learned instead to care for the twins like they were his younger brothers. Or even more than that. Clint tossed a popcorn at Ethan, and Ethan caught it in his mouth. Will rolled his eyes at both of them but his lips were smiling as he leaned over so instead of Clint hanging on his side, Will was resting his weight on Clint. Clint's arm almost automatically wrapped around Will's waist, and Will's gentle laughter filled the large living room as his twin and his guardian threw popcorn at each other.

It was something neither Tony nor Bruce dared to disturb, so instead Bruce came next to Tony to read. Tony just stared at the trio, his elbow that Clint had held the day before tingling warmly. He went back to his plan of the shooting range addition, his fingers flying over the keyboard in planning the newest addition. So what if he just wanted to see how Clint looked when he was shooting a bow and arrow? At least it'd give him an excuse to invite Clint and Will over more often.

He wasn't even aware the others had dozed off until a hand tapped him on the shoulder. He turned, alarmed, to find Clint right behind him. "A shooting range?" Clint sounded amused. "Are you building one for me to show off my shooting skills?" He bent down until his face was right next to Tony's, tri-colored eyes scanning the computer. "Looks awesome, but everyone fell asleep and I'm bored. Can we go outside or something?"

Tony looked around. Bruce had fallen asleep leaning on the side of the desk, so Tony gently nudged him until he woke up sleepily. He settled next to Steve, and Tony pulled the same blanket over the two of them. Will and Ethan were nowhere to be seen. "Where's Will?"

"Ethan took him upstairs when he fell asleep. I think they're just gonna cuddle for a while, and I wanna give them some space." He shrugged.

"Will doesn't really want space from you."

Clint nodded and shrugged at the same time. It was a weird feat. "True, but I'd still like to give them space. They_ are_ going out, after all. I like to give them their own time now and then. So are we going out or not?" Tony's mind wished those words meant a little something else, but he stood up, nodding silently. "Cool." Clint supplied him with a trademark grin, and Tony felt himself mirroring it. "Come on, let's get some fresh air."

The chill hit them as they walked out, and Tony shoved his hands into his pockets. He'd suggested leaving a note so no one panicked when they were gone, but Clint had reminded Tony that Will would know if he was kidnapped or not. Clint liked stepping on snow, fake or not, so the two made their way across the slopes, weaving in and out of skiers and snowboarders. Tony bought two cups of cocoa, and then just because Clint was looking longingly up at the gondolas that were moving up, bought two round-trip tickets. "It's going to be freezing up there." Clint laughed as Tony handed him a ticket and they got in line. "You and I are _not_ dressed for the wind up there."

Clint turned out to be painfully right. Sharp mountain winds greeted them as they set foot on the top of the mountain, but both teens just laughed. Some of the ones on the top were skiers and boarders, but there were many like them who had just come up for the view. "I love being up high." Clint said, looking out of the viewpoint, hugging his arms. "You can see _everything_. I'm like the opposite of acrophobic. Is there such thing as acrophilia?"

"Yeah, but I think that's more used to describe people actually getting a hard-on by being in high places."

Clint laughed, a rich sound that Tony loved. He moved closer to Clint and Clint didn't pull away. Instead, Clint stepped closer, pressing their arms together. Tony could feel Clint's body heat through the layers they were wearing. "Ethan would love it up here. He loves heights, too. Will would hate it, though. He's horribly acrophobic." He made a motion like he was drawing the string of a bow and then letting it go. "But he'd stand it for us two." He said warmly and then brought his arms back, pressing against Tony again. "The view's pretty damned fantastic up here, though, so he might actually enjoy it."

"We should come up here again tomorrow. In full gear. I think Bruce might be able to stand coming up this high."

"Is he a bad boarder?"

"Nah, he's just as good as the rest of us. He likes it, but he hates the cold, so usually when we come here he boards with us for maybe like the first two, three hours, and then doesn't budge from the cabin for the rest of the day." Tony snickered. "We never really bothered coming up here for the view. I mean, we did come up here, but we just went straight down without appreciating it." He looked at the snow-covered mountain range. A bird – probably a hawk – flew from one side to the other in the distance. "You and Will are providing a lot of first times for me."

Clint's eyes sparkled when he turned to face Tony. "We have that effect on a lot of people. What were your firsts?"

Tony shrugged. "First time cooking, ever. Well, I didn't really cook, I just sorta did what Will told me to do, so first time working in the kitchen, ever. First time sleeping on the floor. First time shooting at people. First time being in a gunfight. First time actually rescuing someone." Clint laughed at this point. "Well, you know. The firsts that come with kidnapping and all that. Also, first time Natasha complimented me for something."

"Your reflexes." Clint hummed lightly. "Sorry for, you know, that time, when I threw you on the mat."

"No big. First time someone threw me on the mat, too, now that you mention it. First time actually enjoying a mountain view even though it's fucking freezing."He didn't know what made him say the next sentence. He blamed it on the cold, on the numbing winds, on the breathtaking view and Clint's glowing eyes. "First time, I think, that I genuinely fell in love with someone." He took a deep breath and quickly added, "First time I was ever unsure of myself."

Clint didn't respond in a while. But a quick glance Clint's way told Tony that Clint was thinking. He looked neither flustered nor disgusted, so that was a good sign. But then again, why would Clint be disgusted? His own twin was gay and that didn't bother him. Not to mention he pretty much made out with his same-sex twin every day.

A million thoughts ran through Tony's mind until Clint spoke up. "You know, Tony, I always wondered what was going on, between us." There was a hint of a smile on Clint's lips, but when Clint turned to face him, he looked more uncertain than happy. Tony didn't quite know how to feel about that. "I mean, Will used to always talk about destiny and all that. Some Chinese thing where there's a red string like connected to the ones you're destined for, apparently. Will used to say stuff like there's a huge tangle around me and him and Ethan." Clint winked. "Will's a bit of a romantic." Tony nodded, wondering where Clint was going. "And then after we met you… Maybe it was about a month after, I don't know. It wasn't too long. We were about to go to sleep, and I sort of hand him snuggled in my arms, and he told me that he thought maybe that you were connected to our huge red tangle, too."

Tony looked down at the hot chocolate in his hands and took a sip. It was no longer hot, just lukewarm, but it somehow cleared his head. "Would you like me to be?" He looked down at the brown swirl again and took another sip.

"I don't know. Yes, I think. If you'd like to be." Clint shrugged, looking down at his own cup of hot chocolate. He took a sip and frowned. "This thing tastes gross cold."

"I think it's okay. Mine's still pretty warm. Want?" Clint shook his head, and Tony took another sip of his almost-cold drink. "I'd like to be." He said softly, suddenly more sure of it than anything he'd ever been. Maybe it was the cold, the wind, the view, Clint's eyes, whatever else that had made him confess ten minutes ago.

Clint's eyes warmed instantly, and when their eyes met this time, the uncertainty was all but gone. "Let's get back on the gondola back down. I'm freezing my ass off and I want another cup of hot cocoa." Tony agreed, and when they stood in line to wait, he dumped their cold cocoa in the trash. He snatched the glove off Clint's hand, tugged his own off, gripped Clint's left hand with his right and shoved their hands in his coat pocket. Clint looked surprised but laughed, and Tony felt his calloused fingers curl around his own. If the people behind them noticed, they said nothing of it as the pair boarded the gondola, hands still held. "So?" Tony raised an eyebrow at Clint. Clint poked his chest. "I think this is the part where you ask me out."

Tony snickered, and he leaned over, uncaring of the fact that the gondola was made mostly of glass and that anyone could see if they did something. "Can I kiss you?"

"That's not asking me out." Clint's eyes were amused, green and blue and gray dancing merrily along his irises. "But yeah. I guess you can."

When Tony leaned in, he realized it was the first time he was making out with a guy. Well, that's another first, he thought. But he realized it wasn't all that different, except that Clint didn't really let him take control too easily. There was no tongue at first, but then Clint snickered and suddenly Tony felt the urge to invade him, so he did. Their tongues battled for dominance first but Clint relented, gripping Tony's arms as Tony's hands snaked behind him to hold him firmly. "Tony." Clint whispered into Tony's lips, smiling against him. "We need to separate, we're almost all the way down."

Tony did, and realized Clint and he were both out of breath and flushed red. And not just from the cold. "Do you think Will knows?"

"Of course he does. Which means he told Ethan and Natasha. Which means Natasha told everyone else. Which means we don't have to do it ourselves." Clint rubbed his nose, looking slightly embarrassed but pleased. "You owe me a new cup of hot chocolate, and then we'll walk back and think about how to handle questions." He climbed out of the gondola once it reached the end and Tony followed quickly.

Tony bought just two and Clint sipped the new cup with a grin. "How does it work? Your telepathy? It's not really like you can communicate through your mind, right?"

Clint hummed. He didn't respond right away, but Tony knew he was thinking, not ignoring him. "Well, we can feel each other's emotions, that's for sure. Like when Ethan's making out with Will, I know not to step into the kitchen, or Ethan's bedroom, or wherever they are. Will knows I know, which makes him embarrassed, so it's sorta cute. We can feel pain, but you've seen that happen, when I knew Will got hurt. When he gets sick, I feel sort of sluggish, too. He'd definitely know we'd kissed, and he knows I wouldn't slut around. Plus he knew I had feelings for you, and he's been telling me you did, too. He'd have put two and two together. Will's a sort of a genius, if you didn't know already." Clint gave him a toothy grin, and Tony offered him his ungloved hand as they moved away from the crowded slopes to the cluster of private cabins.

Clint took it, lacing their fingers together, the grin still on his face. He sipped happily on the hot cocoa, looking rather like a child on his birthday. Tony entered the number code and did a hand scan, and when they were inside he had the urge to kiss Clint again, so he did.

It resulted in a fit of laughter from Clint and something thrown to Tony's head. He looked up to find Natasha and Bruce, both of whom looked highly amused. Both were holding cherry tomatoes in their hand, and judging from the one rolling around near Clint and Tony's snow-covered boots, that had been the ammo. "You should have seen Will." Bruce said, sounding amused as the pair wrestled with the laces on their boots. "He came shooting downstairs all of a sudden and tripped over the table and woke all of us up, and pretty much demanded to know where you two were. When he realized the two of you weren't here, I thought he was going to faint or something. From excitement, though, not from anything bad. He sort of had to tell us what got him so worked up."

"How's everyone else taking the news?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "How do you _think_ everyone else took the news? All of us pretty much knew already, you two were just being prudes. But you should come in before Will has to come down himself. Ethan put him in bed because getting too excited isn't good for his blood pressure."

Clint hovered for three seconds for Tony to toss his boots off his feet. They walked first through the den and Tony was all-too aware of Steve's smirk, Thor's loud laugh and his hand landing on his back. Clint was still grinning infectiously, snickering as they made their way upstairs.

Ethan was waiting for them at the top of the stairs. He congratulated them, but he looked cautious, like he'd hoped that Tony had listened to his warning from before. But all the same, he squeezed Tony's shoulder and his smile was genuine, so Tony let himself relax a bit. Will was reading on the bed, but when Clint came up to him and squeezed into bed next to him, there was a quiet laughter, warm smiles and kissing.

Tony realized Clint was kissing Will's lips with the same lips he'd kissed Tony, and for some reason that was incredibly arousing. But he was Tony Stark, duh, so he forced the blood back into his brain and sat down next to the bed. Will reached over and squeezed his hand, his eyes sparkling, but his attention was back on Clint's shower of affections. "You're giddy." Will rolled his eyes, squeezing Clint's hand as it wrapped around his waist. "Maybe you two should have gotten some time off by yourselves a long time ago." Clint only hummed happily and Will chuckled.

There was a rustle of clothing as Ethan came to sit on the bed and ruffle the twins' hair. "That's good, though." Ethan said, snickering softly. "Now Clint will have a partner to board with when Will stops." Clint nodded, digging into Will's side with a sigh.

Tony blinked. "What about you?" He looked pointedly at Ethan. "Aren't you supposed to be protecting them?"

Ethan looked amused. "Kidnapping doesn't happen where there are a lot of people around, Tony. Tasha and I'll be with Clint and Will when it's night and not that many people are on the slope, but when the slopes are pretty much loaded with people, they're safe."

Will snorted. "He means he and Tasha get too bored of boarding at our level, so they go off to the highest slopes and board there." He jabbed his boyfriend in the chest and Ethan laughed, curling his hand around the index finger and bringing it up to kiss it gently. Will stuck his tongue out but didn't take his hand back.

Tony leaned back, remembering the caution Ethan had given him. Will and Clint ranked each other above everyone else. You fall in love with both of them if you fall in one in love of them. He crossed his arms and leaned back, understanding that he wasn't part of the "huge tangle" yet. Maybe his string was connected to them, but he guessed the connection reached not only to him, but also to Steve and Thor and Bruce and Natasha. Right now, he guessed himself to be looped around Will and Clint perhaps as much as Natasha was. He tried to imagine a giant ball of red yarn weaving in and out, tangling within itself and binding everyone within its tangle tighter.

His imagination was broken when a hand waved in his face, followed by a snicker. Clint withdrew his hand and Tony saw Will was laughing quietly. "Not like you to space out." Clint raised an eyebrow. "Unless I'm so awesome that you can't really comprehend dating me."

Tony wasn't one to back down, of course, so he smirked and reached over to poke Clint in the nose. "Please. I'm the one all the girls are throwing themselves on the floor to date. You should be the one doing the uncomprehending." He was rewarded by Clint snapping his face up and biting down on his index finger, but not hard. It was Will who reached over and smacked Clint's chin, snapping Clint's jaw up and digging his bottom incisors into Tony's finger. "Ow." Tony winced. "Thanks a lot, Will."

Will snickered quietly and stuck his tongue out. He took Tony's hand and gently rubbed the teeth marks. "That was for insulting Clint." Will said lightly, his eyes dancing. He and Clint exchanged a look and shared a secret smile. Tony's stomach did _something_, but it wasn't an unpleasant feeling. It was some sort of envy, but it wasn't the sort of envy where he wanted to replace one of the twins. He just wanted to be a part of it.

Something Tony Stark had to work for. He'd never worked hard for anything, ever – things had sort of always fallen in place before him. So far the most effort he'd ever put into anything was when he convinced his parents to let him attend public school. But making an effort meant the goal was worth something. He leaned back and included Ethan in his view. He was just as part of the picture as the two twins were, their guardian and the reason why they could relax and smile around each other. He leaned in again and Clint's hand reached over to entangle their fingers together, and when Tony grinned Clint mirrored him.

He wasn't completely part of the picture, just yet, but he was going to work his ass off to fight his way in. And it was going to be worth every minute of his fight.

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Yayyy! Tony finally gets some action after 4 and a half chapters and the reason behind the title comes up :3 Review?


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I don't own the Avengers or Mission Impossible characters. Jeremy Renner is my ultimate bias currently, so I thought, well, why not bring them together and make them twins who can't live with each other? Categorized under Avengers because it's AU either way, and the fic is going to be in Tony's 3rd person limited narrative, anyway.

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Tangle of Red: Chapter 6

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In the end, everyone was either too sore or too lazy to go out into the slopes the first day, so they ended up watching movies the entire day. Apparently Iron Man 2 was the obvious choice, because they'd watched the first one. "Hey." Ethan snickered. "You look like Robert Downey Jr."

"So people tell me. Let's be honest, though, I look a lot better." He shot back, which earned him a snicker and a jab in the side by Clint. Natasha tossed a pen at him and it hit him in the cheek, so he obediently stayed quiet as the movie continued. Apparently the decided theme of the day was Marvel, because Captain America followed right after.

"We need a break." Bruce moaned when Natasha stood up with the Blu-Ray disc for Thor. "We've been staring at that TV screen for almost four hours."

"Yes. I am frankly starving." Thor announced. "Even if I am not quite against watching a movie about an actual god that I am named after, I would like to do it after food."

Will looked up, laughing lightly. "I can cook."

Steve held his hand up. "No, no. We'll order. Or Tony will. What're you in the mood for? I think we should celebrate. You know." He glanced over at the largest couch, where Ethan, Will, Clint, and lastly Tony were sitting. Clint had Will tucked into his side, but his hand was ghosting along Tony's wrist and hand, tracing swirls. Will himself was chatting quietly to Ethan, looking amused. "Or you can just, you know, stare amongst each other."

Ethan chuckled lightly. "No, lunch sounds good. Something not too much."

"Pizza." Clint announced. "I want pizza." He glanced over at Will, tucked under his arm, and nuzzled his cheek. "Hawaiian?" Will laughed, reaching over to tug at Clint's neck and touch their noses together. And then that was that, so twenty minutes later they were watching Thor, except with three pies of Hawaiian pizza in the table in front of them.

Tony noted that Clint was picking out all the pineapple off Will's pizza to put on his own. "What's the point of getting Hawaiian?" He asked quietly. "We could have gotten a pie of just regular."

Clint snickered. "This is how Will likes it." He bit into his pizza, nibbling at a piece of pineapple that almost fell off. "I don't argue, means more pineapple for me."He reached down to kiss the crown of Will's head, and Will looked up, his eyes laughing. "Don't be turned off, Tony." Clint whispered so lowly that Tony himself barely heard it.

The entire room was focused on the movie. Ethan seemed to have noticed but was pointedly ignoring the pair, but Tony couldn't take his eyes off. Clint's hand moved to the back of Will's neck, stroking gently before tugging firmly. Will's arm wrapped around Clint's back and his fingers gripped the arm of Clint's shirt, and then Clint's lips were on Will's.

But it wasn't the chaste kiss Tony was used to seeing between the twins. There was definitely, definitely tongue. Will's head tipped back and Clint pushed slightly forward before his hand on Will's neck fell and they parted. Will's eyes caught Tony's and a flash of embarrassment with a mix of indignation crossed his eyes, as if saying, 'so what?' Clint peeked back and smirked smugly at Tony and settled Will into his side again, sighing contently glancing at Tony as if in a challenge.

Tony wasn't one to step back from a challenge. Especially not on something like this. So he moved in, gripped Clint's chin and kissed him with just as much force as Clint had used kissing his twin brother. The thought and the reminder sent a flash of heat straight below his waist and Tony pulled back first, trying to force his flush back down. Clint snickered and reached over, his cheeks colored pink, and touched Tony's cheek. "Maybe someone needs a cold shower."

Tony refused to lose, so he managed a smirk back. "Yeah, Clint. Go ahead." Clint raised an eyebrow, looking mildly impressed that Tony could pretend the kiss had done nothing for him. Tony looked back to the movie and wondered if his friends really hadn't seen or were just pretending not to have noticed. He glanced over at the twins after a while and saw that Clint's head was ducked, listening to something Will was saying, a smile playing along his lips.

Ethan looked over the twins at him, an unreadable look on his face. He didn't look mad or disapproving of Tony, and it took a bit of time for Tony to realize what it was. It was understanding and sympathy, which weren't exactly the first ones on the list of things Tony thought Ethan would feel for him. But Tony understood. They were the same – outsiders who weren't outsiders. They were neither inside nor outside the twin's relationship.

And then Tony finally realized all along, for almost four months, that his picture was wrong. He'd thought that the tangle of red had looped around everyone, around Thor and Bruce and Steve and Natasha and Ethan and him. But he'd been wrong. The twins had a tight tangle around each other and only around each other. Tony had a strand, but with a wrong move the string could become completely unraveled from the main ball and the twins wouldn't even notice.

Ethan then smiled softly at him, and then placed a hand on Will's thigh. Will looked up, squeezed Ethan's hand and held it, but went back to talking to Clint. Ethan settled for this and looked back to the screen, his soft smile still lingering on his lips, looking relaxed and easy.

Ethan was the complicated part of this picture. He was almost like Tony, in the fact that the string he held should have been easily pulled out. But Tony realized the twins were clutching onto the other end so that it wasn't necessarily completely all around them, but it was a line they weren't willing to let go.

Tony wondered if he could ever make his own line become as important as Ethan's. Clint caught his gaze and winked at him and Tony realized it was a challenge he was going to take up. And enjoy.

The rest of the day was spent on whatever Marvel movie they could find after they were done with Avengers. The Fantastic Four movie and its sequel followed, and everyone chomped down on pizza for dinner as Thor commented on how hot Jessica Alba was. "I think I've had enough." Clint moaned as the credits to Silver Surfer rolled through the screen. "Let's go to sleep or something. We can hit the slopes early in the morning."

"Clint brings up a valid point." Thor agreed, turning his neck and shoulder to test if he still ached. Steve did the same with his legs next to him. "It's 10, but we could go to bed."

"We could soak in the hot tub." Steve pointed out. "It's just 10."

Will perked up at this. "There's a hot tub here? Oh, that's why you said to bring swimsuits."

"Well, there's a pool, too." Natasha quipped lightly. "Tony's loaded, remember? We could jump in the Jacuzzi. Should we?"

It was apparently a rhetorical question, because in less than five minutes, they were all at the hot tub. "This thing is big enough to be a pool." Ethan whistled lowly, sitting down on the edge and testing the water. Will came up next to him in dark violet swim trunks and a white shirt over his torso. Tony was somewhat thankful that Clint chose to go without the shirt and was kicking up the water next to Ethan clad only in his black swim trunks.

As it always happened with a group of guys in topless conditions, there was immediately a battle to show off who was more muscular. The obvious winner was Thor, Natasha pointed out, with Steve and Ethan not too far behind. "And Bruce would lose." She announced, and Bruce glared at her. "It's not even like you're participating in this muscle battle." She pointed out, pointing her chin at Thor, Steve, Ethan, Tony and Clint. Will himself was sitting in the tub, looking content. Natasha tugged Bruce over and the three stretched out in the water, sighing contently as the hot water lapped around them.

But peace and quiet around Thor wasn't exactly long lasting. In fact, it ended when Thor and Clint play-wrestled and splashed each other with heaps of water, resulting in a large splash overtaking a resting Natasha. Will and Bruce wisely sunk lower into the water and pressed themselves to the edge as Natasha calmly swept her red hair from her cheeks and stood.

It wasn't the first time Tony had felt that Natasha was actually bigger than Thor, and every time it happened he wondered why he always forgot it felt sort of like a frog being paralyzed in a snake's stare. Or a fly trapped in a spider's web. They were almost immediately barraged with torrents of water. The fact that a thin, just-barely-over-5-feet girl was able to conjure up this big of a splash was obviously against the laws of Physics, but Tony had more things to worry about than the laws of Physics that Natasha was usually happy breaking. Like not drowning, for example.

But thinking was barely a possibility when a 100 pound redhead Russian was shooting hot water in your face. Right as Tony thought he might possibly drown, the water tsunami ended, and when Tony finally got enough of his bearings to see straight, he saw that Ethan was holding one of Natasha's hands. "You don't want to kill them, do you?"

"That could be argued." Natasha glared. According to what Tony remembered, Ethan should have been on the receiving end of the water tsunami along with him, Clint, Thor and Steve, but Ethan was barely wet and was all smiles, unlike the other four who looked like cats left out in the rain for too long.

Will and Bruce were laughing. "What happened to the muscle contest?" Bruce snickered.

"I think Tasha won." Will supplied softly. He dove underwater and pushed off his end, and Clint had his arms up so Will could hold them to surface. "Look at you." Will teased, brushing the dripping water off Clint's forehead and cheeks. "Don't you guys know not to mess with Tasha's rest time?" Clint grabbed his hands and grinned back.

Thor grumbled but sunk down, looking winded. He brushed his hair back and shook it like a wet dog, so hard that the droplets hit Tony. Steve swam up to where Natasha had sat back down with a huff, and was apparently trying to make peace with her, because, as anyone knows, not being at peace with Natasha was a dangerous thing.

Tony considered sitting next to Clint and Will, but thought better and trudged to plop down between Ethan and Thor. Ethan snorted but said nothing and instead sunk low into the water, resting his head on the back and closing his eyes. Tony could see the tense muscles under the water – no doubt he had to spring up if there was an attack on the mansion or something. Tony wondered if there was a gun somewhere hidden in his swim trunks, but realized that a gun with wet gunpowder couldn't really fire.

"Hey." Tony prodded Ethan on the side. "I think you should relax."

Ethan chuckled lowly and opened an eye. "I _am_ relaxed. You'll learn to be relaxed and be able to jump into action immediately." He closed his eye again. Tony didn't buy it for a second – Ethan was a mass of coiled muscle, ready to spring to action at any sort of disturbance. Tony thought he could see an earpiece under the shaggy brown hair, and then didn't doubt it that he was actually wearing an earpiece. He also didn't doubt that there were probably people on their roof, maybe even inside, monitoring everything. Maybe it was Jane and Benji, from the airport fiasco.

Tony wasn't one to let curiosities lie. "So are people like, on the roof, watching us?"

Ethan chuckled. "No, people are not watching _us_. They're nearby, ready to jump into action when they're called. But they're not here, with us." He opened his eyes and looked at Tony. "Contrary to popular belief – well, I suppose there is no popular belief with the IMF – but contrary to popular belief on many government agencies, they have better things to do than breathe down necks. Plus, our agents are skilled enough to spring into action immediately even if they're a little off-site." He flicked the water at Tony. "Just relax, Tony. We've got it covered. No one's going to attempt anything while Natasha and I are within ten feet of Clint and Will." Ethan glanced over at him and his tone was final, so Tony let everything lie for now.

In any case, everything was too peaceful to bother. Thor was lying down right outside the tub, stomach down with his head buried in his arms. The overflowing water from the tub lapped at him before it drained, and from the muffled snoring from in arms, Tony knew he was asleep. Bruce was leaning on Natasha's shoulder, his eyes fluttering shut now and then. Natasha kept patting his cheek as she talked to Steve. Steve was still trying to cajole her, which seemed to amuse Natasha to no end.

Will and Clint were talking, laughing quietly, sometimes splashing each other with warm water. Once every so often they slid up to Ethan or Tony, shared a quick kiss, but then went back to each other, sharing secret smiles and private looks. He glanced at Ethan, who looked like he cared almost nothing that the twins had a secret little world. He was leaning back again, his shaggy brown hair damp and almost touching Thor. But Tony wanted to be a part of it. Wanted to be part of their secret.

He barely moved when Ethan's hand grabbed his arm. "Don't." Ethan said, eyes still closed. "Let them be, Tony. Clint's helping Will cope."

"Cope? With what?'

"With dating you." Ethan answered, his eyes still closed. "Will did the same with Clint when he started to date me. They have to come to terms with the fact that they have to share each other. Let them be."

That made sense. Sort of. Tony decided to let it lie and, as Ethan had told him, kept himself from hovering. One by one everyone went to take a shower and drifted off to bed. Natasha trod on Thor's knee to get him to yelp awake, and by the time Tony got out of the shower, it was past midnight. He was humming to himself in his room when a gentle knock sounded on the door. "Will?"

Clint poked his head in. "Try again. Nice to know you'd prefer Will over me."

Tony shook his head. "No, I mean. No one else would knock, and I thought you weren't the type to knock either."

Clint snickered. "I know, I'm joking. I usually don't knock. But I figured since you just got out of the shower, you might be changing or something." He closed the door behind him and sat down on Tony's bed. He hummed softly in his throat before looking up. "Ethan said I should go see you about something he said in the tub. He thought you'd like to talk about it." He regarded Tony quietly. "What'd he say?"

Tony shrugged. He was now pretty certain Ethan could read minds. Maybe that was how he became such a good agent at the age of twenty. "Something about you and Will coping that you have to share."

"Ah." Understanding flitted over Clint's eyes, and then a smile snuck into them. "I guess he thinks you should know the story." He patted the bed next to him and Tony came to sit down. "I bet he made it sound like Will was the one doing the comforting." Tony blinked. "Didn't really happen that way. Ethan asked Will out, after a fiasco we had in Africa - "

Tony didn't know why he interrupted, "The water… thing."

Clint stiffened, and a dark look crossed into his eyes. After a moment of silence, he spoke up again. "Nat told you, huh." Nat. The word sounded dangerous, harder and colder than the usual soft "Tasha", and Tony felt unnerved. Clint was unhappy that it had been spoken about. He frowned lightly and looked dissatisfied, but sighed and looked back up. "…The water thing, yeah. Will was in a coma for over a week after Africa. They were planning to take him off life support, but Ethan kept fighting them. And I was throwing up all over the place and having organ failure here and there, which didn't help Ethan's state at all. When Will woke up, Ethan had a breakdown and then got him a ring."

Tony blinked. "A ring."

Clint snickered. "Yeah, like a promise ring. Will freaked out, I mean, like any normal person would. He sort of relapsed again and Ethan panicked and it was… well, it was a mess." He laughed sadly. "I mean, they were made for each other. Even if that sounds cheesy. The moment we met Ethan, I think I knew it was going to happen. Everyone has a pair somewhere out there. But anyway, they didn't really talk about it while Will was in the hospital, and Ethan didn't bring it up again. To be honest, I don't even know what Ethan was thinking. Will was fourteen back then. Not that we're any much more mature now but…" Clint broke off, looking a little broken. "Will grew up too fast." Clint looked up at Tony. "Everyone looks at us and thinks I'm the one doing all the protecting."

Tony nodded hesitantly. His mind tried to keep up with Clint's story. Clint was trying to tell him too much at once and he was branching off into topics that were off the original, but Tony didn't dare stop him. Unlike Ethan or Natasha, he hadn't been able to witness everything firsthand. If Clint could only tell the story in torrents of broken memories, Tony was going to take everything he could get.

"Will protected me. Ever since we were in the orphanage. Even then I was still bigger than him, but he still did. We got adopted, and then he still protected me. He took in all the emotional stress that we should have had and let me vent everything out. He carried both of our burden and had to mature faster, understand the world faster." He closed his eyes. "No one can really understand it. No one but Ethan. Not even Tasha will understand how much Will does for me." He smiled gently at Tony. "You don't have to lie right now and say you get it, either. That's not something for you to know yet, anyway." He paused. "I got really off track, didn't I?"

Tony managed to smile. Clint had drawn the line out to him in bold, the line where he wasn't allowed to cross yet. It shook him more than it should have, because it wasn't something he didn't know already. He managed to calm himself down and nodded for Clint to continue.

"Anyway, Ethan gave him the ring and they started to, I don't know, date, or something. They haven't really gone on an official date yet, even, and they don't exactly sleep together or like do anything. But Will was scared of... letting someone else inside. We had our own little castle and he wasn't sure what would happen if he let the doors open for Ethan to walk in. So we talked."

"Is that what you did today?"

"No, not really. I told you. Will takes all of the mental stress. He worried for me again, but in the end he trusts you, I think." He reached over and squeezed Tony's hand. "He says you're good for me, but I think he feels a little betrayed." He shrugged. "Or depressed, or something. He hasn't exactly said it out loud, but I felt it." He smiled. "He doesn't like sharing me, I guess."

Tony turned to stare directly at Clint. "Not sharing yet, though." He said softly. "Will still owns most of you."

Clint laughed appreciatively. "Will owns all of me. You just share some of it." He laced his fingers through Tony's own and thumbed Tony's index knuckle. "I love him. More than anything."

Tony snorted. "Yeah, that much is pretty obvious."

"And you're okay with that?"

Tony eased his hand away from Clint's hold to cup Clint's cheeks in both of his hands. When he leaned forward to kiss him, Clint didn't pull away. It was an innocent, soft kiss, almost a mockery of what he'd wanted to do to Clint when he'd watched the twins make out. He spoke against Clint's lips, barely parting away. "Yeah. I'm okay with that." Clint laughed on his lips and Tony pressed their lips together again, feeling the smile on his own lips.

Clint's hands rose to gently hook themselves on Tony's arms, not to pull them down but to secure himself. He let Tony push him down onto the bed, and let Tony climb over him and press their bodies together as he opened his lips to let Tony lay claim to his mouth. They were a fervent tangle of tongue and limbs until Clint pushed slightly on Tony's chest with a breathy laugh. "We've been dating for less than 24 hours, Tony. I think sex right now would be moving too fast. And if we continue like this, we're definitely going in that direction."

Tony nodded distractedly, focusing on breathing and willing his arousal away. "I'm not usually like this." He said desperately, feeling incredibly out of character. "No one was supposed to make me feel this way." He was supporting himself on his elbows right on top of Clint.

"What, desperate and craving and confused?" Clint laughed, fanning his face and avoiding Tony's eyes. "Same here."

The fact that Clint felt about the same way as he did made him feel a little better. Tony rolled off of Clint and they stayed quietly in silence, Tony snaking his arm under and around Clint's shoulders. "Will probably felt that, huh?"

"He probably thinks we were having sex." Clint muttered, amusement clear in his voice. He rolled over to his side, carefully avoiding having to roll his shoulder on Tony's arm. He rested his ear on Tony's arm and looked up at Tony. "We're going to work out, I think."

"Yeah, I think so." Tony laughed, feeling completely confident for the first time the entire day. He felt confident letting Clint go so he and Will could snuggle in bed together. He tried to imagine how Will and Clint would interact, but figured they would act like nothing had happened. For the first time in a rather long time, he fell asleep easily, not rolling around in his bed with his head full of thoughts of the twins.

He woke up the next morning when he felt the pressure on his knee and jumped up into a sitting position before it could transfer to pain. Natasha looked impressed as she landed back on the floor. "Your reflex." She nodded in approval. "We should hone that. It's too much of a good physical trait to pass up."

Tony groaned. "Stop talking to me like I'm a secret agent, because I'm not. And will you _please_ wake me up without physically hurting me?"

Natasha huffed and jabbed a finger at him. "Did you have sex with Clint?"

"Please. Gimme some credit here. I'm not that much of a sex fiend, am I? I think we should be dating for a little longer than 12 hours to be having sex." He rubbed his cheek. A quick glance at the clock told him it was 6:30. Figured Natasha would want to hit the slopes before they even opened. "I'll be ready in half an hour." He grumbled. She patted his head as if he was an obedient puppy, which he sort of felt like around Natasha sometimes.

He was downstairs in full boarding gear in 45 minutes. Clint leaned up to him and kissed his cheek softly. "Morning." He grinned, adjusting his goggles on his head. "Bruce and Will are sleeping in. Bruce says he'll join us at 1 for lunch."

"Sounds good." Tony nodded. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah." Clint's grin grew wider as he offered an ungloved hand to Tony. Tony snatched a glove off one hand to hold it. He ignored Steve's comment about Tony being mushy, and tugged Clint to follow the group. Natasha and Ethan disappeared as soon as their feet hit the snow.

Thor snorted. "I will never understand Natasha's fondness of rapidly descending down a pile of snow."

"Well, if you put it like that it does sound kinda dumb." Clint agreed, laughing. "Let us commoners go off somewhere where we can't kill ourselves." He shifted the weight of his jet-black board on his arm. "Should we start off easy?"

Steve pointed to a large lift on the far end. "We can take this one all the way to the top. It has a double green circle that we can start with, and then ease into a blue square and then a double blue square if you want."

Tony snorted. "Figures you'd have it all figured out. But that sounds perfect, let's go."

"We've been here every year for the past six years, Tony. It'd be weird if I didn't know."Steve rolled his eyes and strapped his foot into the board as they slid into place in line. "You own this place, shouldn't you know it better?"

"I don't own this place, my parents do." Tony shot back. He paused and glanced over at his new boyfriend, wondering what the news would do to Clint. One thing Tony had learned about his money was that it tended to scare a lot of people away. Not that Clint was anywhere bordering poor, since Ethan apparently owned an Audi, a Rolls Royce and a Porsche. But all the same.

Clint didn't even look surprised that Tony owned the entire ski resort. He actually looked a little annoyed. "How come we have to stand in line if you own this place?"

Tony sighed. "I told you, I don't own it, my parents do. Plus, this is part of boarding. What's the fun if you just constantly board down the slopes? We gotta rest with this."

"Yeah, but we don't need rest _right now_." Clint nudged Tony in the side, though Tony barely felt it through the layers of boarding gear. "Please?"

Tony rolled his eyes but tugged Clint's hand and beckoned for Thor and Steve to follow. The employees recognized him almost immediately and let the four on, much to the complaints of those waiting in line. Clint seemed to enjoy the special treatment and he was all grins as he plopped down in between Steve and Tony, with Tony on the far left and Thor on the far right of the four-person lift. "How good are you?" Steve wanted to know. "Thor's the best out of all of us."

"Thor's just good at anything related to anything physical." Tony snorted. "He's as good at Natasha, but he likes hanging out with us better. Cause he's cool like that, unlike Natasha."

Thor flashed a toothy grin their way. "I will take that as a compliment, friend." Tony snorted, but didn't say anything to rebuke it. "So, Clint, how good are you at this sport?"

Clint shrugged. "I'm not fantastic. You know, not like basketball. That I'm pretty fantastic at." He grinned proudly, and Tony felt his insides warm. "But I can make it down the slopes without crashing into anyone or anything. You should see Will on the board though. He _wipes out _when he falls. Creates a mini snowstorm or something."

Steve raised an eyebrow, and then must have pictured the event, because he smiled a little. "Will falls often?"

"Only because he gets scared of people in his way. He tries to jerk out of the way and then he ends up somehow swerving a 360, kicking up a bunch of snow and then falling on his ass. If you give him a clean slope without any people, he'll blow your fucking mind with his skills, but put all these people in the way and he'll panic." Clint laughed fondly, and he glanced backward in the general direction of the winter house.

"Sounds like our own Bruce." Thor hummed lightly. "Do you acquire assistance getting off the lift?"

Clint snorted as the fast lift approached to the end. "Please. I'm not an amateur." He was the one to push the bar up. As he'd said, he slid almost as professionally off the lift as Thor did, reaching a hand out to grab the larger teen just so he knew which direction to go. He whistled when he saw the amount of children on the first double-green course. "Will would have a heart attack." His glance flitted toward the mansion again, a sort of worry flashing across his eyes before he fitted his other foot onto the board.

Tony wasn't one to miss it. He let Steve and Thor scoot ahead and he slid up to Clint so they could talk on the relatively flat beginning portion. "Worried about Will?"

Clint looked surprised, and then embarrassed. "Was I really that obvious?" Tony snorted in response. They separated for a bit to turn around the corner, and then Tony slid back up next to Clint. "I asked Bruce to make sure he takes his meds, and I know Bruce won't forget, but still." He sighed. "I worry about him, all the time." He leaned back a little to follow the slightly curving slope, moving fluidly down next to Tony. "We usually don't stay too far apart unless it's in school."

It was the last bit of conversation Tony was able to have with Clint before Thor led into the blue square and they were boarding at a safe distance away from each other. Clint moved easily, weaving in between stumbling rookie boarders and wide-turning skiers. He kept in pace with Steve and Tony, and the three trailed only slightly behind Thor. Tony knew Thor was controlling his speed so he could stay with his friends, because he'd seen Thor board once with Natasha and Thor looked like he could beat a professional boarder down the slope. When they got to the bottom Clint was laughing, but the concern wasn't completely etched from his eyes. "That was the first time I got to board all the way down without stopping." He said excitedly as they slid into line again for the same lift.

Thor chuckled. "We should take a different route. Just explore around. As long as we don't turn into a double-black diamond, we should be fine."

"That would be bad. Remember that time when Tony thought he was going to die?" Steve snickered. Tony glared. That was not one of his best moments, and not one he wanted to share with his day-old relationship. It was obviously too late, because Clint perked up immediately. "We accidentally went down a double diamond once. I mean, I think we would have been okay if we kept down it, but Tony sorta sat down and I don't even remember why. But the thing is, the slope was so steep that he just kept sliding down it, and he panicked because he couldn't get up or stop and the trees were rushing up to him. He like flipped over and grabbed the slopes but kept sliding down. It was kinda funny to watch."

Thor winked at Clint. "Steve may laugh about it now, but at the time he himself was panicked. I recall you attempted to intercept his fall and it resulted in slowing him down, but both of you lost control."

Clint laughed. "So how'd they get out of the mess?"

Steve shrugged. "Turns out that the slope turns down a lot near the trees, so Tony would have stopped a long way before the trees anyway. But yeah, Tony doesn't go there anymore." He snickered, and Tony groaned. He wasn't embarrassed by it – Tony Stark never got embarrassed – but it was something he would have preferred Clint never really knew. Or at least didn't know until way, way later.

Clint seemed infinitely amused by the entire thing, and kept poking Tony about it. "I think it's cute." Clint grinned as they got off the lift a second time. Tony was about to say something but Clint used his free foot to anchor himself, lean upward and plant a quick kiss on his lips. Before he could respond, Clint was already sliding away, glancing back at him with a quirky smirk.

After that, it was a contest between him and Clint to see who could kiss who first. He only succeeded twice, but once when Clint kissed him, Tony had managed to grab him and turn it into a heated kiss. He was pelted with snowballs from Steve for "indecent public display of affection." Clint didn't even seem to mind the dirty looks he was getting from a few people, which suited Tony just fine. He didn't really care about homophobic people either.

Clint all but abandoned him in favor of Will when lunchtime rolled around, but Tony couldn't bring himself to mind, especially when Clint padded up to Will and they stood smiling at each other for five seconds before Will sat Clint down, patting at his sweaty forehead with napkins. "Had fun?" Will asked gently, brushing snow from Clint's gloves and jacket, his eyes nothing if warmth.

"Yeah, but there're a lot of kids on the slope." Clint rubbed Will's cheek with his right hand, running his thumb along Will's jaw line. "Maybe you should just stay here."

Will pulled snow-covered boots onto his lap, apparently uncaring about the weight of the heavy snowboard boots. He pulled on Clint's gloves to start brushing away at the snow that had accumulated around the bottom and sighed, smiling up at Ethan as he and Natasha came in. "Maybe, but I don't…. I feel uneasy being apart for so long." He bit his lip. "The snow…"

Tony and Steve exchanged a glance. Bruce looked uneasy listening to the conversation, but thankfully Will didn't have to continue for Clint and Clint sighed, taking a cup of hot chocolate Thor had brought over to sip. "Yeah, I know." He rubbed his warmed hands on Will's cheek again. "Did you take your meds?"

"Of course I did." Will snorted. "Bruce forced me awake at noon and made me take them." He smiled across the table at Bruce, who grinned back.

"We could board at the night shift, take it easy for now." Steve suggested. "We could go up the gondola again." He flicked a piece of snow from his sleeve, watching Will settle Clint's feet back down onto the floor. "It has a really nice view."

Thor nodded in agreement. "There are less people on the slopes at night, so William doesn't have to worry as much about running into others."

Tony quickly supplied, "But still enough that, you know, we don't have to worry about no one being around or it being dangerous or anything like that." Tony made a mental note to ask Ethan about the snow thing later. He would have preferred asking Clint, but figured Clint may set up boundaries. Plus, Ethan seemed to have no problem informing Tony what he could ask and what he could not at this moment, and didn't judge Tony for wanting to know.

Ethan caught his look and he smiled knowingly. "Natasha and I'll stay with you for the night run, anyway."

"Maybe you and Tasha and Thor can go up to a double black and we can watch you board down from the bottom once." Clint spoke up excitedly. "You know, so we can see you show off all your little stunts." Natasha snorted, Ethan looked abashed and Thor looked excited. "In any case, let's eat something, I'm starving." Will stood up the same time Tony did, and Clint laughed lightly. "Both of you go."

Will chuckled and tugged on Tony's jacket to steer him in the direction of the food stands in the cabin. Will stood a little back from the counter, quietly reading the menu, probably making a mental checklist of what to buy. Tony didn't know what made him do it, but he stepped right up to Will and asked, "So what's up with the… snow thing?"

Will didn't react with the guard and hesitation that Clint had reacted when Clint found out that Tony had known more about them than he'd expected. Instead, he responded to Tony with an unsure smile. "The Africa incident." He explained gently. "We were kidnapped on a white Christmas." Tony's face must have done something, because Will went on quickly. "We don't have trauma about it or anything. It just makes me uneasy, a little, sometimes. Only sometimes."

"Maybe it was a bad idea to come here." Tony said quietly, biting his lips.

Will brushed Tony's arm. "No, we're having a lot of fun. And I told you, it's only sometimes. Not often, either." He smiled reassuringly. "I promise." He tugged Tony to the counter and started to order. Tony pointed out things Bruce and Steve liked, and when asked about Thor, pointed out that Thor would eat anything. Will laughed easily, and Tony took this as a good sign.

They ended up getting too much food for the two of them to carry, but Will and Clint must have worked some twin magic, because Clint came as the food trays came out, with Steve behind him, and the four carried a tray each. "I think we cleaned out their hotdog supply." Clint joked as he sat down, pushing the tray in front of Thor. He took a chili dog and a piece of Hawaiian pizza himself and helped Will pluck out the pieces of pineapple from his pizza.

"We're good business for them, whatever."

"I thought your parents owned this place."

"The food stores are rented out to individual owners." Tony supplied, biting into his burger. Neither Will nor Ethan looked surprised at Clint's comment, meaning Natasha had probably told Ethan and Bruce had probably told Will. Clint shrugged and popped a pineapple in his mouth and turned when Will started to say something.

Tony stayed quiet throughout dinner, munching slowly on his burger. Natasha and Bruce kept eyeing him weirdly, but said nothing. Tony tried to organize his thoughts as much as possible. From what he could get, Clint was more open about Will than everything except details about their twin relationship. Will was more at ease giving it away, at least to Tony. Will seemed to trust Tony more than Clint trusted Tony, which Tony didn't quite know what to feel about. But it meant he could ease more information from Will than he could with Clint. Not that he was going to abuse the fact, but he made a note of it.

He broke out of his thought process only when the group got up. Clint came up to lace their fingers together and he smiled, tugging Clint up ahead so he could buy tickets. "It's got a really nice view, Will." Clint was telling his twin. "Even you'll like it. Just don't look down. And we're all in boarding gear, so it won't even be that cold. Hopefully, at least."

Tony turned, eight tickets in hand. "Yeah, unlike yesterday when Clint and I went up there, we were freezing body parts off." Clint laughed in response and they filed into a single gondola. Will was clutching Clint's hand, slightly stiff.

Steve raised an eyebrow. "Are you acrophobic?"

"No, just healthily afraid of heights." Will sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I have full confidence in the technology behind all of it, just… I just get scared a little." He confessed, smiling sheepishly at Steve. "Plus, malfunctions always happen."

Natasha snickered. "That's what all acrophobic people say."

Will stuck a tongue out in response. In any case, Will spent the entire ride stiff and holding Clint's hand, and he was the first one out of the gondola, walking briskly out into the top of the mountain. Ethan rolled his eyes and quickened his pace to catch up once everyone was off the ride.

And then a large snowball hit Will so hard in the head that he stumbled. Tony felt Natasha run before he saw her, and Ethan was also right by Will's side in a heartbeat. "What happened?" Bruce demanded, jogging over right behind Clint.

"Fucking faggots." Tony heard a voice hiss. A few grunts and shouts later, Natasha threw a large, middle-aged man down to the snow, her eyes cold and dangerous. "What the hell's wrong with you, bitch? You got a problem with me handing justice to faggots? They're an eyesore, unnatural."

Natasha hissed dangerously. "I've got a problem when you throw snowballs at _my friend_." She bent down, grabbed the heavy man by the collar and easily hoisted him up to jab her finger in his throat. "And you know what's an eyesore? " She spoke in harsh Russian, looming over him even though the man had a foot on her in height.

Tony swerved his attention back to Clint and Will. "I'm okay." Will waved his hand. "It was just a snowball. No harm done."

The look on Clint's and Ethan's face indicated that there was going to be harm done. Clint's hand was shaking in rage as he brushed the snow off Will's blonde hair. Tony watched his friends, all shaking in silent anger, and stood. He grabbed Natasha's arm lightly and Natasha swerved to look at him, cold anger burning in her eyes. "Don't stop me, Tony." She hissed. "No one gets away with hurting Will."

"You're right. I'll take care of it, Natasha." He spoke softly. She glared at him, standing her ground. "Trust me. I will." His voice was firm, and Natasha gripped his shoulder before she stepped aside, her blazing gray eyes set on him. Tony stepped forward as the man tried to swing at him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." He said smoothly. "Please remove yourself from the park before you cause anymore disturbance. Will could probably sue you for physical assault and defamation of character. I could sue you for deliberate obstruction of business, and you'd probably lose it all. So before we have to get into dirty terms, I suggest you remove yourself quietly and completely from this park."

The man spat at his feet. "Who the fuck are you to tell me all those things, kid?"

Tony felt tall, like he was looming over the man even though they were about the same height. He smiled because he knew he had won, knew the man was already scared of his answer despite the tough attitude. "Me? I'm Anthory Edward Stark. I own this place."

* * *

I think from today, I'm going to be updating this every week instead of every four days because I'm writing all these other one-shots at the same time and I haven't written a word of a new chapter for Clipped. Sorry


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